Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard opened up a can of worms last month with some pointed remarks about being part of a rebuild. In short, he’s not about it — and that revelation led to rumblings that he could request a trade out of the Pacific Northwest as soon as this summer.
Things escalated to a whole new level on Wednesday, though, when Lillard made his most overt remarks to date on potentially leaving his home of 11 years in the NBA during an interview with ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
“If we can’t do something significant like [making considerable roster upgrades], we won’t have a chance to compete on that level,” Lillard told Smith, before dropping the hammer. “Not only will I have a decision to make, but I think the organization will, too.”
Should Lillard and the Blazers opt for a parting of ways, several teams figure to be in the mix for a potential trade, and the Miami Heat should be at or near the top of that list.
For his part, another of the four-letter network’s Association insiders, Brian Windhorst, went so far as to identify the Heat as the team to look out for on the Lillard front.
Windhorst: Heat Have the Means & the Motivation to Make a Blockbuster Trade for Blazers’ Damian Lillard
While discussing the Lillard situation with Smith, Kendrick Perkins and the First Take panel on Thursday, Windhorst made a point to shout out the Heat as a possible — perhaps even likely — landing spot for the seven-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer.
“The team I’m watching is the Miami Heat,” Windhorst declared. “The Heat are ready to go to their next star window. This is what the Heat do — the Heat hunt stars. [Lillard’s] time would match with Jimmy Butler in terms of age. They have tradable things that, potentially, the Blazers could want.
“I’m being a little premature, but that’s kind of what I see happening.”
Those comments hearken back to sentiments made by a rival exec in speaking with Heavy Sports’ Sean Deveney in March.
“It would have to start with Tyler Herro. Once his extension kicks in, you can send him to Portland. Then it is a matter of, can they include Kyle Lowry? Duncan Robinson? Portland would have to take back a bad contract to make it work,” the exec told Deveney.
“So then, how much draft capital is Miami willing to give up? They owe a pick (2025 first-rounder) to OKC, so they can only give up a couple picks, and they could include [Nikola] Jovic. They’d have to put everything into the now and there’s a chance they’re going to be willing to do that.”
Injuries Notwithstanding, Lillard Had an Incredible Year
Thanks to a lingering calf issue, Lillard was limited to appearing in just 58 games for the Blazers in 2022-23. When he was actually on the court, however, he arguably played as well as he ever has for the club (even as an almost-33-year-old).
Lillard averaged a career-best 32.2 points per game for PDX — a number that trailed only Joel Embiid (33.1) and Luka Doncic (32.4) on the league-leader charts — while connecting on 46.3% of his shot attempts overall and 37.1% of his attempts from three-point range.
He also finished 10th league-wide in assists per game at 7.3 and boasted a net swing of 12.8.
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Heat a Team to Watch in Sweepstakes for 7-Time NBA All-Star: Insider