Damian Lillard has maintained his Miami Heat or nothing stance as he is not interested in joining the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers, or the Brooklyn Nets.
The aforementioned teams emerged as potential landing spots for Lillard amid his ongoing saga to join the Heat.
According to Aaron Fentress of the Oregonian, the Portland Trail Blazers star “did not merely request a trade. He demanded one to Miami.” That, in turn, means he has “no interest” in being moved to the Philadelphia 76ers, Boston Celtics or Brooklyn Nets.
It should be noted that the 32-year-old guard has a no-trade clause and that would mean the Blazers could quite simply move him to a team that in return gives them the best assets, and Miami hasn’t been on that list yet as Fentress compared it to what the Spurs received last season for Dejounte Murray.
These updates come after Lillard’s agent Aaron Goodwin was reported to have been calling up other teams in the league warning against trading for the mercurial guard.
It’s The Miami Heat Or Bust For Damian Lillard
The Miami Heat may not have the resources to acquire Lillard via trade, but that hasn’t stopped the guard from maintaining his stance on playing alongside Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
Per Mark Medina of Sportsnaut, Lillard would not report to play for any other team but the Heat if he was traded there.
“‘He just wouldn’t go,’ a person familiar with Lillard’s thinking told Mark Medina of Sportsnaut. ‘He just wouldn’t report.'”
“I don’t think the other team would trade for him knowing that he doesn’t want to be there,” the person familiar with Lillard’s thinking told Sportsnaut. “He’s a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer so they should respect his wishes.”
At this stage, the argument is that Lillard would be in a Heat jersey at the start of the 2023-24 season, but for now, there is ample drama unfolding, and only time will tell whether the move will be murkier than imagined.
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