As of Friday afternoon, nothing appeared to be imminent regarding a possible Damian Lillard trade, reports Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.
According to Jackson, the Trail Blazers‘ front office is currently on vacation and has shown no inclination to comply with Lillard’s trade request to the Heat. That said, Lillard remains focused on landing in Miami and doesn’t plan expand his list to include additional teams, a person with knowledge of the situation tells Jackson.
Jackson believes the Blazers may have spurred the league to investigate Lillard’s request and the comments made by his agent (Aaron Goodwin) in order to drum up trade interest, hence the NBA’s memo on Friday. Since Lillard and Goodwin told the league the star guard would fulfill his contract and play for any team that trades for him, the Heat will have to hope rival teams don’t decide to make “legitimate trade offers” for the 33-year-old, Jackson observes (Twitter links).
If Portland decides to wait until midseason to move Lillard, that could work against the Heat, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel. As Winderman notes, the Nets received far more in return for Kevin Durant at the February trade deadline than the rumored offers they were receiving last summer for the superstar forward.
Here’s more out of Miami:
- The Heat are interested in bringing back Jamal Cain on a two-way contract, which is why they gave him a qualifying offer, but the young forward hopes to land a standard deal and continues to discuss that possibility with other teams, Jackson writes. Miami could match a potential offer sheet for Cain since he’s a restricted free agent.
- Miami is interested in signing former Northwestern guard Chase Audige, who played for the Heat’s Summer League team, to a training camp contract, but his agent declined to say whether or not Audige would accept the offer, Jackson adds. As a senior for the Wildcats in 2022/23, the 6’4″ Audige averaged 14.1 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 2.9 APG and 2.4 SPG in 34 games (34.4 MPG), though he struggled with scoring efficiency (.368/.325/.832 shooting line).
- The Heat have had discussions with Goran Dragic‘s representatives about a possible reunion, but a potential deal likely wouldn’t come to fruition until later this summer, according to Jackson. The veteran free agent guard made his lone All-Star appearance with the Heat, but he’s 37 years old and dealt with a knee problem last season that required surgery. The Heat can only offer the veteran’s minimum, which may take them out of the running for free agents like Christian Wood and Kelly Oubre, who are looking for more money, per Jackson.
- In a mailbag for The Miami Herald, Anthony Chiang answers questions about the Heat’s roster and how the new second apron might affect the team going forward.
Keep it simple
Harden + Lillard to MIA
Herro + Bam to PHI
Maxey + tons of picks to POR
Ban is not going to be traded. You sir know nothing about basketball. Who plays 5 for Miami?
Harden vs. Heat Culture would be epic. Immovable object meets irresistible force.
This has escalated a bit. Dame should expand his desired teams list or just stay. Miami can’t make Portland a good offer obviously. Bam is going nowhere.
Dame wants the heat or he wants to stay. He actually likes portland. It’ll be up to portland to convince other teams to make offers.
Good chance other teams will come feb. Trade deadline. Teams have more to offer and better reasons to make moves.
If portland was really upset they could send Dame to where players really hate to play.
I agree, Lakers showed you don’t have to put a team together until the last minute to get into the playoffs. But for MIA that’s all they need. 8th seed? Might as well be 1st seed. Playoff Jimmy will be ready to play and so will Dame. By that time lots will shake out with these other teams.
I really liked Audige in summer league, and was hoping Cain would be an option for one of the remaining roster spots
Hopefully the Heat see the writing on the wall about this situation and just keep on the trajectory theyrenon. Not necessarily a necessity to make a trade, especially for a guard
Just do your offseason business and let someone else worry about Lillard
If only Lillard and his agent had the guts to admit what they are doing instead of acting like chickens lying blatantly and destroying irreparably what good reputation might have been left of Dame, real sad to see him ending like this!