Damian Lillard’s trading saga just drags on and you might want to get used to it – it can take much longer.
Why it’s taking so long is pretty simple: Lillard only wants to be transferred to Miami and the Heat’s best trade package doesn’t live up to Portland’s expectations. What are the Trail Blazers hoping to get back from a Lillard trade? Out of Aaron Fentress of the Oregonian :
According to NBA sources, the Blazers are looking near four first-round picks and two good players. Achieving this, however, might require the addition of a third team.
Miami’s best offer is a combination of Tyler Herro (or Kyle Lowry’s expiring contracts), up to three first-round picks, and young first-rounders Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr. That doesn’t fit the Trail Blazers’ criteria — they already don’t want Herro, because they have Anfernee Simons, a similar player with a similar contract. This brings us to the need for a third (and maybe fourth) team to enter the trade. This has not yet happened in a way that works for both sides. Portland could trade Lillard for a team other than the Heat, but Lillard’s agent Aaron Goodwin has told the teams that could trade for Lillard that they would get a very disruptive player (no one believes Lillard is like that, but welcome to the game the liar poker.
So here we are. The rumor mill in Las Vegas at Summer League is that we may not see a resolution to the Lillard scenario until after Summer League is over. So far there has been little, if any, movement, and until one side changes, there probably won’t be either.
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