- Damian Lillard and his camp have made it clear he wants to go to the Miami Heat
- The Heat offered a package revolving around Tyler Herro
- The Trail Blazers have never really been enamored by Herro
The Miami Heat have been pursuing Damian Lillard all offseason, and the initial trade package they offered to the Portland Trail Blazers, was revealed by NBA insider Marc Spears. It centered around Tyler Herro and was rejected by the Trail Blazers.
“The Heat initially offered a trade package that included sharpshooter Tyler Herro and two first-round draft picks, a source said,” Spears wrote.
There would have been a couple more players involved to get the salaries to match, but this really is an underwhelming package for a player of Lillard’s quality. The issue for the Heat here is that they actually cannot trade more than two first-round picks at the moment.
Due to the Stepien Rule, they can only offer two unprotected first-round picks in 2028 and 2030, along with pick-swaps in 2024, 2027, and 2029. The Heat’s 2025 first-round pick belongs to the Oklahoma City Thunder and is lottery-protected, which is what has made things tricky for them.
As for the players, a guard like Herro is of little use to a Trail Blazers team that has a young backcourt of Anfernee Simons and Scoot Henderson. Miami’s own young players like Nikola Jovic and Jaime Jaquez Jr., meanwhile, are really unproven in the NBA and aren’t as highly thought of as Henderson either.
So, there really doesn’t appear to be any package from Miami that would interest Portland. It’s why they have been trying to include a third team here, but haven’t had a lot of success on that front.
Tyler Herro Appears To Be Rather Upset
No one would be all that happy to have their name dangled in trade rumors all offseason, and Herro is no exception. The 23-year-old has been giving signals for a while now that he is rather upset about the situation at hand.
Recently, Herro appeared to throw shade at the Heat and you can’t really blame him. It’s just the business of the NBA, though, and you’d expect him to be professional if he remains on the roster.
It appears Miami has some big plans in place for him if that does happen, as the Heat could use Herro as their primary ball-handler if the Lillard trade fails. At this point, the possibility of it failing seems to be growing at a steady pace.
The Heat Are Now Reportedly Facing Stiff Competition In The Lillard Sweepstakes
Lillard and his agent making it crystal clear that he only wanted to go to Miami seemed to have scared away any other potential suitors for a while. A few weeks back, Brian Windhorst said the Heat are the only team seriously pursuing Lillard, but that appears to have changed now.
Spears reported that the Toronto Raptors seem to be leading the race for the seven-time All-Star. The Raptors can potentially land Lillard with a package centered around Scottie Barnes, and they have some other notable assets like O. G. Anunoby to offer as well.
The Milwaukee Bucks are also considering pairing Giannis Antetokounmpo with Lillard, which might be the result of the Greek hinting he could leave the team next year. The Bucks would have to make a splash to convince Giannis to stay and what better move than acquiring Lillard?
If the Heat don’t end up landing the 33-year-old, they’ll probably kick themselves for not finding a way to get this done earlier. To me, it just seemed inevitable that at some point, another team would get desperate enough to land a guy who averaged 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.3 blocks per game last season.
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