It has been over two months since Trail Blazers star guard Damian Lillard requested a trade from Portland to Miami. Now, Danny Marang of 1080 The Fan in Portland reports that there are ongoing discussions for a deal involving Lillard to be completed before training camp on October 2 (Twitter link).
Earlier on Thursday, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst appeared on the Behind the Play podcast (YouTube link) and said the Blazers are trying to get a deal done, adding that in the last week or so, there’s been more movement from Portland.
“I don’t know what their offers are but I think they are making an attempt to resolve this before training camp,” Windhorst said. “They may get there or they may not. … I don’t see [Lillard] as someone who doesn’t report or doesn’t play. I would be very surprised if you didn’t see [Lillard] there and playing at his all.”
Miami Herald’s Barry Jackson corroborated Marang’s original tweet, writing that a “non-Heat person” spoke with Portland’s front office tonight and backed up Marang’s reporting (Twitter link). Jackson adds that this is the first time he’s gotten the sense that the Blazers would like to make a deal before camp “if they get what they’re looking for.”
This echoes earlier reporting on Thursday involving the potential inclusion of the Suns and/or Deandre Ayton in a deal. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM said he expected the Lillard trade to happen “very soon,” even as soon as the next 24 hours. Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports wrote that trade talks among interested teams are heating up. Bourguet added that conversations between the Heat, Trail Blazers and Suns, the latter of which has been described as a potential facilitator in such a trade, have increased over the last day or so.
While the Blazers could be looking to get a trade done, it isn’t clear which team they’re having the most talks with. Bourguet writes that Chicago, Toronto and Philadelphia could all be potential partners in a trade and that each is active on the market right now.
Lillard demanded a trade specifically to Miami, but for months it’s been reported that the Trail Blazers haven’t been interested in engaging with the Heat. While that certainly could have changed, it’s also possible that another team is nearing the finish line to acquire the seven-time All-Star.
According to Bourguet, the Heat are “desperate” to get a deal done for Lillard now. Miami has been contacting teams around the league to help facilitate a multi-team trade, reports Bourguet.
It’s important to note that even with all the reports suggesting the Trail Blazers are trying to get the trade done before camp, it’s still possible it doesn’t happen at that time, as Windhorst noted in his podcast appearance. If the Blazers still don’t like the offers available to them, they could hold Lillard into the season, as Jackson and Windhorst reported.
Chicago is such a weird inclusion at least in my eyes.
How much better are the Bulls realistically with Dame instead of Lavine? Maybe a few wins, but that doesn’t even put them in the top 4-5 in the west IMO.
Chicago just seems to have no sense of direction. What a clown show over there
Maybe they want Herro to replace Ball ?
Lillard is a point guard and Lavine isn’t. Lillard has a higher TS%, a real point guards assist to turnover ratio and averaged 8 more points a game last year.
That has to at least a 5 game improvement.
If Miami are that desperate, maybe they should put a real offer on the table instead of this we’re-not-negotiating-against-ourselves BS.
After Bam and Butler the heat do not have much to offer. Herro as your starting point best offer is insulting. Zach at least gets the conversation started.
Why should they bid against themselves? Nobody is offering anything good at this point of the off season and with Dame already saying Miami.
Coming off of the NBA Finals is not desperate fool.
Lol where in Lillards contract does it say no trade bow wow ? Where does it say Miami only dog ? Coming off a near 500 regular season pugslie? Apparently knucklehead they aren’t bidding against themselves as the article states.
“Why should they bid against themselves?” Because the article says that Miami is desperate to get a deal done, but you didn’t bother to read the article, did you?
Real offer? They are not including Bam their 2nd best player. Swap Bam with Dame in the finals they still lose. The point is to have Jimmy, Bam, and Dame.
Offering Herro is the real offer along with all the picks they possibly can with a salary filler in Duncan or Lowry. They don’t have young talent, that is the Heat culture they make undrafted guys work. They could include Martin in the deal but Portland won’t know how to use him.
The point is that isn’t a real offer which is why Portland says noooooooooo. They don’t want Miami trash.
No one is offering substantial players and picks for a 33yr small pg who can score but does not defend. I don’t even think Dame really makes others better. He also has a massive contract. Great player but more on the decline years now. Other teams would just wait until the trade deadline and see.
The point is Portland doesn’t want Herro. They have drafted two guards in the lottery the last two years that they want to build around and also already have Simons with $75m left on his contract. They don’t want to trade Lillard to bring back another guard that happens to have a terrible contract and would be coming off the bench. They want young players and draft picks. Herro is young but is redundant on their roster has $120m contract.
Herro got a bad contract? Have you seen Lillard’s? Dafuq?
They already have deal in place, why would Billups be sitting with Lowry of all people at a college game? Chauncey has the excuse of going to Colorado, Lowry does not. No other players were in that so wasn’t like various players attended and had a box.
bingo… done deal
you have to think Philly gets involved to help punch Harden’s ticket out of town
Oh, I saw another team was involved and instantly thought “three time time”!
*three team time
Fwiw it’s hard for a team that Dame doesn’t want to play for to pony up more than the Heat would trade. He’d be unhappy while they pay him a ton and his last year is an option anyway so you’d be shopping him in two years rather than lose him in three Who wants to give up 3-4 first rd picks and a couple of good young players for that?
Jeesh, Windhorst is the master of saying absolutely nothing and getting everyone’s attention:
“They may get the deal before training camp or they may not”
“I don’t know if there are offers, but Portland wants to resolve this.”
No s**t. Give me a freaking break, lol
Dame at that price and she is worth Herro at his price and age.
The first hurdle a trade offer has to clear is to provide the other team something it values more than what its trading away. Only after that does its value relative to other trade offers come into play.
It appears that POR places more value on DL than what MIA is offering (even with all the issues surrounding keeping him on the roster into the season). If so, its irrelevant at this point whether there even are offers from other teams.
Some of the stuff being reported is just silly.
Phoenix may well be involved as a 3rd team. However, they are NOT using DeAndre Ayton to facilitate a trade. They can get a lowball Ayton trade from a lot of places.
If Miami and Phoenix advance to the Finals. You are telling me that Phoenix wants to be there without Ayton while at the same time adding Lillard to Miami …. And the player these dudes said Phoenix would get is Nurkic.
Silliness from guys without any real information trying to speculate like they know something ahead of a deal everybody knows is about to happen.
He is not a team player which means no jewelry.