NBA Rumors: Damian Lillard may not report to training camp if traded to a team that isn’t the Miami Heat.
Nearly two and a half months since Damian Lillard officially demanded a trade from the Portland Trail Blazers (and to the Miami Heat), there still has been no real reported traction on a potential deal. Nevertheless, at least up to now, the plan is still for Lillard to find a way to get to Miami.
And while there’s still a belief that Lillard will eventually be traded to the Heat, the fact that it still hasn’t happened and that there have been no significant trade talks between Miami and Portland, you can’t help but begin to entertain the thought that it may not happen for a while (if it does at all).
That said, something has to give soon. NBA Training Camps officially open in the next few weeks and that’s really the next “deadline” or meaningful timeline for a potential Lillard trade. But, for both the Heat and Blazers, time is ticking.
With just a few weeks before the official start of the season, it appears that Lillard and his camp could, once again, be turning things up a bit. According to a new report from Shams Charania, he doesn’t believe that Lillard would report to training camp if traded to a team that isn’t the Heat. Shams did mention that he would probably report to Portland’s training camp if not traded by the start of the season, but not even that is a guarantee at this point.
Can the Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers strike an agreement soon?
At this point, you have to imagine that the Heat and Blazers will be working hard to strike a Lillard deal before the start of camp. It’s clearly in the best interest of both teams. It wouldn’t be ideal for the Heat to start camp without Lillard, if the hope is to acquire him at some point before the NBA Trade Deadline and the last thing the Blazers need is for this potential distraction to take away from their young players and their development.
Neither side may ever admit it but it would behoove both the Heat and Blazers to come together and hammer a deal out over the next couple of weeks.
Whether or not that will actually happen remains to be seen. But at this point, Lillard is doing everything in his power to get to Miami. The question is, will it work?