The Portland Trail Blazers have issued a really clear message to groups all for Damian Lillard. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Blazers are beginning to get severe about transferring Lillard. “For teams calling about trading for Damian Lillard, the message from the Portland Trail Blazers has been unambiguous: Bring your best offer and make your team our preferred trade destination,” writes Wojnarowski. “General manager Joe Cronin doesn’t plan to operate a transfer portal to the Miami Heat and dutifully deliver history’s greatest Blazer to his targeted team.”
Despite wielding a whole lot of affect with the Blazers, Damian Lillard has little or no tangible energy on the subject of this commerce. Sure, he can request a commerce, however the Blazers maintain all of the playing cards that include that. Lillard is underneath contract for 2 years, having already exercised his participant possibility for 2024-25. The 2023/24 season remains to be months away, which means that there’s little or no menace of Lillard sitting out video games. Furthermore, Lillard doesn’t have a no-trade clause in his contract. This implies that he will get completely no say in the place he’s heading both. However, Lillard has made it very clear that his choice is the Miami Heat.
Lillard’s Agent Adds To Drama
However, there could also be a further angle to all of this stemming from Dame’s camp. In the identical ESPN+ article wherein Woj revealed the Blazers’ message, the veteran reporter additionally dropped one other bomb. Dame’s agent, Aaron Gordon, has reportedly been making an attempt to engineer a commerce to Miami. According to Woj, Gordon has been “calling prospective trade partners” and “warning against trading for his client”. Woj continues that Gordon has advised groups that they are going to be getting an “unhappy” model of Dame if he isn’t traded to the Heat.
So why gained’t the Blazers merely commerce Lillard to Miami? Firstly, it’s about saving face for the group. They have royally screwed the Lillard state of affairs, failing to construct something resembling a contender round their generational expertise. As a results of this, the Blazers can’t merely acquiesce to Lillard’s most popular commerce companion with out trying powerless. Furthermore, the Heat are very keen to incorporate Tyler Herro in a deal for Lillard. Unfortunately, the Blazers have completely little interest in buying Herro. That means Miami would wish to discover a third group to commerce with and construct a three-team bundle the Blazers would truly need. Regardless, it doesn’t appear to be the Lillard state of affairs is getting resolved anytime quickly.
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