The Damian Lillard trade saga continues to drag out, and you might want to get used to it — it may drag out a lot longer.
Why it’s dragging out is pretty simple: Lillard only wants to be traded to Miami and the Heat’s best trade package doesn’t meet Portland’s expectations. What do the Trail Blazers hope to get back in a Lillard trade? From Aaron Fentress of the Oregonian:
Miami’s best offer is some 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 meet the Trail Blazers’ criteria — they don’t want Herro because they have Anfernee Simons, a similar player on a similar contract. This brings us to the need for a third team (and maybe fourth) team to get into the trade. That has not happened yet in a way that works for both sides. Portland could trade Lillard to a team other than the Heat but Lillard’s agent, Aaron Goodwin, has been telling teams that might trade for Lillard they would get a very disruptive player (nobody quite buys that’s who Lillard is, but welcome to the game of liers poker.
So here we are. The buzz in Las Vegas at Summer League is that we may not see a resolution to the Lillard scenario until after Summer League ends. There has been little, if any, movement so far and until one side shifts, there’s not likely to be any.
