On the eve of the 21-22 regular season, Damian Lillard responded to a question about the possibility of trade speculation if the Portland Trail Blazers get off to a slow start.

“I’ll answer that the same way I answered it on media day: I’m not leaving Portland," said Damian Lillard. "It’s an easy thing and a popular thing to say but it’s not gonna happen."

There were reports over the offseason that Lillard was close to requesting a trade from the Blazers, which he refuted at the time.

"Adversity is going to hit, there’s goong to be tough times. So if it starts off rocky or if it starts out as a struggle I won’t be happy about it, nobody would. But I’m not going to jump ship and bail out when that happens.”

Lillard also spoke with Jason Quick of The Athletic about how his conversations with Chauncey Billups have changed his mindset. 

“I think a big part of (my change in mindset) was me and Chauncey’s conversations, and where we see things the same,” Lillard said. “I’m not going to share details of our conversations, but it’s not often when I speak to people that they see what I see. Watching a game, observing people … there’s not many people who see what I see. But a lot of what I see, he sees. So that was very important to me. Like, that was a big deal.”