There haven’t been any major updates in Damian Lillard’s trade request from the Portland Trail Blazers, and it doesn’t sound like the team is anywhere closer to getting a deal done. It’s widely known that Lillard wants to be traded to the Miami Heat, but Portland hasn’t been thrilled with Miami’s trade offer for the All-Star guard. As a result, the situation has been at a stalemate between the two sides.
However, the Trail Blazers have reportedly talked to other teams around the league about Lillard, but given Lillard’s public comments about preferring to play in Miami, there hasn’t been enough significant interest to generate a legitimate market for the guard. The Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson is also reporting that if Lillard is traded to somewhere other than Miami, he would still asked to be traded to the Heat.
Lillard’s tunnel vision on Miami puts Portland in a difficult spot because most teams won’t want to trade for him if they’re not guaranteed that he would play there.
Given all that, it just feels like Lillard will end up Miami, it’s just a matter of when. The Heat have to offer a better trade package than the one centered around Tyler Herro and some picks, something that could realistically only happen if a third team is involved to send the Blazers what they want. But finding that third trade partner is tricky.
For now it looks like Lillard, Portland and Miami will continue to wait until either side makes a change in what they want. With training camps across the league opening up as early as next week, perhaps we’ll get some more action surrounding this trade request. We’ll also be waiting to see if Lillard reports to training camp for Portland.
