GM - Blazers willing to wait 'months' to trade Damian Lillard - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — Portland Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin said Monday that a Damian Lillard trade could take «months» to complete in order to satisfy the objective of leaving the franchise in the best possible position if he ultimately trades away one of the best players to ever wear the team's uniform.

«I think what I've learned more than anything is patience is critical,» Cronin said in a news conference at Thomas & Mack Center on Monday afternoon. «Don't be reactive. Don't jump at things just to seemingly solve a problem. I think the teams that have ended up in the most positive situations post-trade have been the ones that have been really diligent in taking their time and not been impulsive, or the teams that really kept their urgency under control.

»So I think that's how my approach has been with this and will be with this. We're going to be patient; we're going to do what's best for our team. We're going to see how this lands. And if it takes months, it takes months."

Cronin said he hasn't spoken to Lillard since July 1, when the player asked to be traded, a request that came after an 18-month stretch in which Portland has finished with back-to-back draft picks in the top half of the lottery — selections Cronin used on a pair of high-upside teenagers: Shaedon Sharpe last year and Scoot Henderson last month.

And although Cronin has said throughout that process that he was trying to find win-now upgrades to build a winner around Lillard, who has spent his entire 11-year career in Portland, he said the answer to the question of «What is the best thing for the Trail Blazers?» was to draft those young players instead of turning those picks into veteran talent.

«Building around Dame has always been the goal all the