There had been a whole lot of speculation on what the Portland Trail Blazers would do with the third pick of the NBA Draft. Reports indicated that they attempted to trade the pick and one of the players the Blazers were targeting was Bam Adebayo, for whom they were preparing a compelling package.
Ultimately though, they failed in their pursuit of Adebayo and NBA insider Zach Lowe revealed the Heat laughed at their attempt to trade for him.
“If you’re going to criticize them for not trading the pick, you gotta tell me who,” Lowe said on NBA Today. “Who did you want to trade the pick to? It’s not like there were just deals out there, Bam Adebayo was floated, (and) the Heat laughed at that. The Heat were never doing that.”
(starts at 20:35 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAyEkzq6SyM
As Lowe stated, the Heat were never going to part with Bam for young players and draft picks. They want to compete for championships and are looking to add stars like Damian Lillard for that. Trading Bam would basically mean a rebuild and with Jimmy Butler around, that was never going to be their plan.
What Will Damian Lillard Do Now?
The Blazers’ failure to trade that pick though does leave Lillard’s future in doubt. It was reported by Chris Haynes that he didn’t want to play with younger guys to help them grow and just wants to win now. Haynes also reported that Lillard has not had any communication with the team recently.
Shams Charania reported that Dame will take a week to decide whether he’d ask for a trade and at this point, you’d wish he does do it. The roster they have at the moment is not good enough to compete for championships and he deserves a real shot at it before his career ends. The Blazers though have reportedly shut down trade talks regarding Lillard and this situation has the potential to get really messy.
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