NBA Rumors: NBA commissioner Adam Silver, at least for now, has no plans to veto a possible Damian Lillard to the Miami Heat trade.
It’s officially been more than a month since Damian Lillard not only demanded a trade away from the Portland Trail Blazers but one to the Miami Heat. However, since then, there hasn’t been much movement or traction on a possible deal between both sides. While that’s far from what you’d want to see at this point, especially if you’re in Lillard’s or the Heat’s camp, there’s still a popular expectation that Lillard is eventually going to find his way to the Heat.
For now, the big questions revolve around when that could occur and what the official deal could look like.
Though, all that appeared to be in possible danger a few days ago when it was reported that the NBA released a memo to all 30 teams centered around pushing back on the Lillard to Heat narrative.
Naturally, as soon as the NBA memo was released, whispers quickly began to grow that we could be on the verge of potentially the next big “what if” scenario. It was at least a possibility that the NBA could seemingly veto any possible Lillard to Heat deal to the circumstances.
However, it’s safe to put those possible concerns to bed. A recent report indicates that NBA commissioner Adam Silver has no plans, at the moment, to step in on the Lillard situation. In other words, there’s no current expectation of any possible vetoing of a deal.
No veto but when could we see a Damian Lillard trade happen?
The current timeline for a possible Lillard trade is a bit complicated. In an ideal scenario, you’d have to imagine that all sides would like a deal to happen before the start of the season. But there’s no guarantee that will happen.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin seems to not be in a rush to make any move and considering Miami can’t afford to “move on” from Lillard, it’s simply become a waiting game and a game of chicken for both sides.
It should be noted that the start of training camps is a little less than two months away. That is likely the next deadline to keep an eye on. There’s no rush now for either team. But that will quickly change as the days go by.
Which side is going to blink first? That may be what this all comes down to.