There’s never really a dry part on the NBA’s calendar – even when it’s the offseason. At the moment, trade rumors and off-the-court sagas are keeping the league in the mainstream, perhaps none bigger than the Damian Lillard drama which also involves the Portland Trail Blazers and the Miami Heat.
At this point, there’s no hiding Lillard’s desire to go to South Beach and team up with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Here is a superstar who’s played his entire career for only one team and has two more years under club control after picking up his massive $48.79 million player option earlier this month. Meanwhile, the Heat want Lillard but is seemingly being left in the dark by the Blazers as to what exactly would it take for Portland to push the eject button on the high-scoring guard.
Via Chris Haynes of the #thisleague UNCUT podcast with Marc Stein:
“Miami doesn’t have all the assets Blazers want in return for Dame. So Heat want to know what do we have to get out there. What teams do we have to get involved to make this work & so far the communication is just not there. That’s making this frustrating for Miami”
Getting Lillard to Miami is always going to be tricky, to begin with, in large part because Miami doesn’t have enough bullets to fire in a one-on-one trade with the Blazers. They’ve already parted ways with the likes of Victor Oladipo (traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder), Gabe Vincent (free agency), and Max Strus (free agency). The Heat have Tyler Herro, who could get the Heat a first-round pick in a separate trade that could turn out to be pivotal for a potential Lillard trade. Now, the potential trades being cooked up online are getting unrealistic.
It all starts with communication, though, so until the Blazers start looking in the direction of Miami again, the Heat can’t afford to risk their remaining assets for other deals.