NBA Trade Rumors: One Portland Trail Blazers reporter suggests that the Miami Heat and Blazers are close to a reasonable deal for Damian Lillard.
At some point, there’s going to be a true development in the Damian Lillard saga. This story has to move forward eventually. Whether that’s the Miami Heat or Portland Trail Blazers blinking first remains to be seen. However, you’d have to imagine that neither one of these teams, in their true hearts of hearts, wants to take this stress (and distraction) into training camp.
Of course, that said, the start of training camps across the league is still more than two months away. That means this back-and-forth between the Heat and Blazers could continue for quite a while.
From all indications, a Lillard trade is still far off. At this point, the best-case scenario is that there’s some type of resolution before the start of the season. But even that is far from a guarantee.
However, according to one Blazers reporter, the Heat and Blazers may not be that far away from a potential agreement. Aaron Fentress of Oregon Live says that the Heat and Blazers may be “close to a reasonable deal” for Lillard.
Would the Portland Trail Blazers accept a “reasonable deal” for Damian Lillard?
The “reasonable deal” that is discussed by Fentress is the Heat building a package centered around a young player or two and 3-4 future first-round picks. That has always been the best package that the Heat could seemingly offer. However, there’s no guarantee it’s something the Heat have put on the table for the Blazers.
And that may be the biggest reason why Lillard hasn’t been traded yet.
The bigger question, however, is whether the Blazers would accept the “reasonable deal” if it were even to be offered.
That’s an interesting conversation to have. Because that’s when we’ll get a real idea of what the true holdup is. Is it really about what’s being offered by the Heat or do the Blazers simply not want to do a deal with the Heat?
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin has reportedly been “unmotivated” to meet and negotiate with the Heat. Would that change if Miami ups their offer or even gives the notion that they’d be willing to increase their offer?
There are so many questions that remain before a possible resolution between Lillard, Blazers, and Heat. At least for now, the waiting game continues – even if there’s a plausible path toward a deal.