Blazers willing to wait months to make Lillard trade. What it means for Jovic, Jaquez in Vegas
Summer league action gives NBA teams an opportunity to evaluate their own young talent. But summer league can also turn into a showcase opportunity for teams to learn more about prized prospects from other organizations.
The Miami Heat is experiencing both sides of summer league this year, as the reality of Damian Lillard’s unresolved trade request to the Heat looms over some of its most intriguing young talent.
That’s left the Heat’s last two first-round picks, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic, trying to avoid the outside speculation that they could be part of a trade package for the Portland Trail Blazers’ seven-time All-Star guard.
“I’m just trying to work,” Jovic said to the Miami Herald. “This is a job. You can see, the NBA is a business. So, whatever happens happens. Of course, I would love to stay here, I would love to stay with these guys. You’ve seen how much they’ve helped me this year, so I would love to be here. But we’ll see what happens. I’m just going to keep doing my thing and whatever happens happens.”
While the 20-year-old Jovic is already eligible to be traded, the 22-year-old Jaquez can’t be traded until July 31 after signing his rookie contract with the Heat on July 1.
“This is a business. It is what it is,” Jaquez said of dealing with trade rumors less than a month after he was drafted by the Heat. “But I’m trying to stay positive right here. My focus is the Miami Heat. I’m just putting all my focus into there and whatever happens happens.”
Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, entered Las Vegas Summer League hopeful that the Heat and Trail Blazers could get together to have a meaningful conversation on finding a trade that works for both sides. But even with executives from the Heat and Trail Blazers in Las Vegas, trade talks between the two teams have not picked up yet, according to multiple league sources.
Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin confirmed as much during a press conference in Las Vegas on Monday afternoon, saying there has not been significant progress made toward a potential deal during his first public comments to reporters since Lillard requested a trade to the Heat on July 1. Cronin declined to go into detail regarding trade negotiations.
“In any deal, the goal is to come out with the best outcome,” Cronin said of the return he’s looking for in a potential Lillard trade. “So for us, that can be many different things. It can be more of a win-now player and that would be intriguing to us. It could be a young player and picks, and that would be intriguing. It could be just picks, we would look at that, as well. For us, it’s how can we maximize this return and I don’t think we have any set parameters.”
While sometimes all it takes is one productive phone call to complete a deal, prominent media members and player agents in Las Vegas for summer league believe there’s a possibility that the Lillard trade saga could drag on for weeks.
The Trail Blazers aren’t blown away by what the Heat has to offer and aren’t especially interested in taking back Heat guard Tyler Herro in a trade, which has complicated the process. A potential Lillard deal involving the Heat is expected to include three or more teams in order to help facilitate the return that the Trail Blazers are looking for in such a deal.
Throw in the fact that Heat stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler are off the table in trade negotiations for Lillard and the Heat wants to keep Caleb Martin out of a deal, and it becomes challenging to put together an offer that’s appealing to the Trail Blazers.
As a result, Jovic and Jaquez could end up as two of Miami’s most attractive trade assets in discussions with Portland. Whether the Heat includes one or both of those players in a potential offer for Lillard remains to be seen.
The Heat also currently has its 2028 and 2030 first-round draft picks to include in a trade for Lillard, with NBA teams restricted from trading away future first-round draft picks in consecutive years. But Miami could unlock a third first-round pick to include in a deal in 2024 by getting the Oklahoma City Thunder to lift the lottery protections on the 2025 Heat pick they own and instead make it an unprotected 2026 Heat pick.
It’s unclear whether other teams around the league have made an offer to the Trail Blazers for Lillard, considering Goodwin has made it known that Lillard only wants to be traded to the Heat.
“Frustrated? No. I understand,” Cronin said when asked if he’s frustrated that Lillard only wants to be traded to the Heat and nowhere else. “I mean, I think that obviously is the place he wants to be and makes sense for him as far as the rest of the makeup of the team and all that. As a team, you always hope that you have more options and to have limited options like that, I wouldn’t call it frustrating but it prevents you from perhaps getting the best return. So that’s something we’ll have to work through.”
Is Cronin still hopeful that Lillard will change his mind and decide to be part of the Trail Blazers’ rebuild?
“I haven’t lost hope, just because I understand this league is complicated and things change very quickly,” Cronin said. “... I don’t know what the future holds, I don’t know what will end up happening here. Just know that I won’t surprised if something different happens than we were originally expecting.”
Cronin made clear the Trail Blazers will remain patient in their quest to maximize the return for Lillard in a trade, noting that “if it takes months, it takes months.”
“I think the teams that have ended up being the most positive situation post-trade have been the ones that have been really diligent and taking their time and not being impulsive or the teams that have really kept their urgency under control,” he said. “So I think that’s how my approach has been with this and will be with this, is we’re going to be patient. We’re going to do what’s best for our team.”
While also trying to do right by Lillard.
“Dame is obviously a very important person and player to us,” Cronin said. “What the rest of his career looks like matters to us and we care about that. At the same time, we have to do what’s best for us and we have to find the right deal and find the right makeup of the team that we’re going to build forward with. So, you hope that you can find that perfect situation where that lines up and he goes to a place that he wants to and you get the best return possible. It’s complicated. Usually it doesn’t work out just like that.”
This story was originally published July 10, 2023 at 4:40 PM.
