Getty Image / Rich Schultz
Maybe Damian Lillard won’t be going anywhere this offseason after all.
At the start of the month, he requested a trade after 11 season with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Miami Heat had already made it their goal for the offseason to land Dame and they were ready to do whatever they needed to make it happen.
Despite that, trade talks have gone nowhere.
Based on a new report, it’s pretty clear who is to blame for that.
On the latest episode of the “This League Uncut” podcast, TNT’s Chris Haynes revealed that the Blazers have refused to tell the Heat exactly what they are looking for in exchange for Lillard.
New podcast! NBA Summer Trade Watch alongside @ChrisBHaynes on #thisleague UNCUT — focused on three All-Stars — is out NOW. We discuss the where-we-are latest on:
🏀 Damian Lillard
🏀 James Harden
🏀 Pascal Siakam
FULL EPISODE HERE: https://t.co/Vufre9Gkgf
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 21, 2023
“Obviously, Miami doesn’t have all the assets that Portland would want in a return for a Damian Lillard trade,” Haynes said. “So they want to know, Ok, what do we have to get out there. What other teams do we have to get involved to make this work and so far the communication is just not there. That’s making this situation rather frustrating on that side for Miami.”
It’s really starting to seem like the Blazers don’t actually have any intention of making a trade happen for Damian Lillard this offseason.
The big question though is what exactly they hope to accomplish by stalling.
They were bad last year. The biggest addition they made this offseason was Scoot Henderson. He plays the same position as Damian Lillard.
Maybe they’re hoping to get a better deal if they wait, but players over 30 don’t tend to get more valuable the longer you wait to trade them.
Hopes were high that Damian Lillard might get to play for a contender next season, but right now, it doesn’t seem like the Portland Trail Blazers are really planning to let that happen.