While Damian Lillard has no plans to leave the Portland Trail Blazers, if the Miami Heat want to find their man, they will need help from a third team.
The Damian Lillard trade saga continues, with the Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat still no nearer to finalizing a deal for the seven-time NBA All-Star. With limited trade assets on their team, though, NBA writer Mark Medina believes that the Heat will need to get another team involved if they are to make a trade happen.
A fresh new update has emerged over the future of Damian Lillard. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, who made an appearance on The Rally, the 33-year-old is only thought to be interested in reporting to the training camp of either the Portland Trail Blazers or the Miami Heat. Charania further went on to suggest that if he were ‘traded to a team like Toronto’ then his trade request would still stand, posing bad news for teams who perhaps thought they were in with a chance of making a run at the All-Star point-guard, despite his public admission of his desire to play in South Beach.
However, Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian reports that these claims are only partially true, stating that Lillard has ‘backed off’ of this firm stance. He further went on to suggest that if the Trail Blazers were to find a better trade package elsewhere, then he would remain professional and “do his job”, but ultimately, he would be unhappy and would likely still look for a way to get to Miami. With limited trade assets on the Miami Heat roster to offer to the Trail Blazers, if the Heat stands any sort of chance to land their No. 1 target, then they may have no choice but to find a facilitator in the form of a third NBA team.
Medina believes that the Miami Heat have no choice but to get a third team involved to help facilitate a Damian Lillard trade as they simply don’t have enough trade assets to entice Portland to make the deal. When asked about whether Miami Heat player and possible trade asset for Lillard, the journalist told GIVEMESPORT:
Since entering the league in 2012, Damian Lillard has spent all eleven seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. Despite making the playoffs eight times in his career, the Blazers have only won a combined four series, per Champs or Chumps, with the team never really looking like championship contenders.
With the 33-year-old having only a few seasons left in his prime years, it is no surprise that he wants to move to a team that are genuine title challengers in the hope that he can compete for his first NBA championship ring. If he were to stay with the Trail Blazers, however, he would come no closer to achieving this goal as they are in early on in a roster rebuild, and look nowhere near close to even being playoff contenders as it stands.
agents, with a report from NBA insider Marc Stein suggesting that Kelly Oubre Jr. could land with the Heat, but only if the South Beach team are successful in their pursuit to acquire the 33-year-old.
With trade talks for the Weber State alum being stagnant for quite some time, and training camp fast approaching, there is now the expectation that talks between Portland and Miami will pick up again as both sides look to come to an agreement, which would finally bring an end to this trade saga that has largely dominated the off-season. Whether those talks will involve a third NBA team remains to be seen. Only when these talks resume, though, will the possibility of landing in Miami begin to edge ever closer to reality for Damian Lillard at long-last.