Damian Lillard waiting game continues for Heat in Vegas. A look at the ‘complicated’ situation
.jpg "Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) looks on during a time out against the Utah Jazz in the third quarter at Vivint Arena.")
The NBA draft was three weeks ago, the busy part of free agency ended about one week ago and summer league will be come to an end in the coming days. But there remains uncertainty surrounding what the Miami Heat’s roster will look like this upcoming season.
That’s because Portland Trail Blazers All-Star guard Damian Lillard’s trade request to the Heat remains unresolved.
The Trail Blazers are looking for a better return in a Lillard trade than what the Heat is offering. And the Heat doesn’t have much reason to significantly improve its offer — other than to simply get a deal done — because it doesn’t appear that another team has made a formal offer to the Trail Blazers after Lillard made clear he wanted to be traded to the Heat and nowhere else.
As frustrating as the delay may be for the Heat, the Trail Blazers never wanted to be in this position. Portland wanted Lillard to retire as a Trail Blazer and Lillard’s one-team list has suppressed the trade market.
“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,” Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin said to reporters in Las Vegas on Monday. “So that’s something we’ll have to work through.”
But in reality the list of those seriously interested in trading for Lillard, even if he was open to being dealt to other organizations, wouldn’t be long. How many teams would be in position to send around $40 million in salaries and significant draft capital to the Trail Blazers for a soon-to-be 33-year-old Lillard, who will make $63 million in the final season of his current contract at 36 years old?
It takes a team that feels like it’s one big move away from a championship and is willing to sacrifice part of its future to make a win-now transaction. The Heat falls into that category after making the Eastern Conference finals three times and the NBA Finals two times in the last four seasons, but falling short of winning the title during this four-year stretch.
“All this external noise, the fact remains, we want to do what’s best for our team and he wants to go to a spot that makes the most sense for him,” Cronin said. “So trying to keep our eye on the ball as much as we can, I would say, and avoid as many distractions and curve balls as possible.”
Lillard’s trade request was a popular topic of conversation in Las Vegas at summer league, and some NBA reporters, agents and executives believe this saga could last weeks and possibly months.
Because what Lillard tried to make a simple situation by giving the Trail Blazers a one-team list when asking for a trade on July 1 has become complicated.
“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.
“It’s possible, but there’s a lot of work involved and often it involves more than just one destination.”
Unfortunately for Cronin and the Trail Blazers, Lillard has made it known he only wants to be traded to the Heat. Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, has even spoken to other teams and let them know they would be getting an unhappy player if they acquire his client.
Lillard’s position has not changed. But uncertainty looms over the Heat’s roster.
Will Tyler Herro begin next season with the Heat? Will the Heat’s last two first-round picks, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Nikola Jovic, still be with the team next season? How many open roster spots will the Heat be left with after a potential trade for Lillard?
The expectation remains that Lillard will eventually end up with the Heat. Lillard wants to play alongside Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler in Miami as they all chase their first NBA championship.
How and when will Lillard get what he wants, and will it get messy along the way? That remains to be seen.
Cronin said he’s willing to wait months to find the best possible deal. Training camps around the NBA open in early October.
“How do you replace Damian Lillard?” Cronin said. “Who is the person in the market place who is available that is a better player than Dame? No team more than us knows what this market looks like. We’ve been trying for 18 months to find the Dame equivalent at another position or somebody that’s 80 percent of Damian. So that’s the challenge.”
THIS AND THAT
▪ Heat icon Dwyane Wade selected Allen Iverson to present him for his induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 12.
▪ After two days off, the Heat will play its third of five summer league games in Las Vegas on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks (5:30 p.m., NBA TV).
Also, the Heat’s fourth summer league game on Friday in Las Vegas against the Denver Nuggets has been moved from 9 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The contest will be aired on NBA TV.
Jaquez (shoulder) again did not practice Wednesday. His status for the rest of summer league appears to be in doubt.
This story was originally published July 12, 2023 at 2:19 PM.
