Getty Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard handles the ball during a bout with the Miami Heat.
For a team that rated as one of the biggest disappointments in the Association during the regular season, the Miami Heat have done well to wipe out bad juju that surrounded them heading into postseason play.
Despite losing Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo to devastating injuries, Erik Spoelstra‘s squad may be on the verge of becoming just the sixth No. 8 seed ever to dispatch a No. 1 in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
Still, getting to 3-1 against the top-seeded Bucks required Jimmy Butler capping off multiple superhuman efforts with the night of his life in Game 4 on Monday, and two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo losing games to an injury of his own hindered the competition, too.
So, the glass-half-empty crowd is probably still working the trade machine in an effort to find the Heat another star-level player to complement Butler, Herro and Bam Adebayo. And team president Pat Riley may well be doing the same thing.
To that end, one league insider has once again namechecked Miami as a franchise likely to kick the tires on a Damian Lillard trade in the event that he becomes available this summer.
Windhorst Sees the Heat Going Star-Hunting This Offseason, Especially if Dame Lillard Is Out There
On the April 26 episode of his podcast, The Hoop Collective, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst touched on the Lillard situation in Portland. In doing so, he linked the Heat — who have a long history of chasing big fish — to the seven-time All-Star once again.
“I think the Heat are on the cusp of looking for another star maneuver,” Windhorst said on his podcast. “I would put them on the list for Dame Lillard if Dame ends up getting traded.”
Whether or not Miami actually has enough in its coffers to submit a winning offer in the hypothetical Lillard sweepstakes remains to be seen, though.
Assuming Riley keeps his current stars on the roster — which he’d likely have to do in order to make the Heat an appealing team for Dame — his best trade asset is Herro, who’s in a bad way at the moment. Nevertheless, Windhorst suspects that Miami would be in on the action.
“I don’t know if they have enough,” Windhorst opined. “A lot of their offer would be built around Tyler Herro, who’s just injured. But I suspect, I don’t know for sure, just to be clear, I don’t know for sure that they would offer him, but I would suspect that that would be the type of thing, that and draft picks.”
Lillard Had an All-NBA-Type Year for the Trail Blazers
The fact that he appeared in just 58 games during the regular season may preclude him from making an All-NBA team but the fact remains that Lillard had a year for the ages in 2022-23.
At the ripe old age of 32, the Weber State product averaged a career-high 32.2 points per contest while adding 7.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds and nearly a steal nightly for good measure. Meanwhile, he posted an effective field-goal percentage of 56.4; another career-best mark.
All of that translated to an otherworldly ability to swing the scoreboard in the Blazers’ favor — Lillard’s net swing for the campaign checked in at a whopping 12.8.