Portland Trail Blazers’ All-Star guard Damian Lillard has been widely mentioned in trade rumors for a while now, and that’s unlikely to change any time soon.
If the Trail Blazers were to deal the future Hall of Famer, they would unquestionably receive a king’s ransom to help accelerate their rebuild. Portland landed a potential franchise star player last week in Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 pick of the 2023 NBA Draft.
Over at NBA Analysis Network, James Piercey proposed a blockbuster trade that would see Portland deal away Lillard to the Miami Heat in exchange for three-point snipers Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson plus 2027 and 2029 first-round draft picks:
“There was a gap in the Heat’s rotation at the point guard position this year. Kyle Lowry is still an effective player, but he is too old for starter minutes at this point in his career. Gabe Vincent is a solid player, but he’s not a point guard.
They are filling that hole with a bonafide superstar in this case. A big three of Lillard, Jimmy Butler, and Bam Adebayo should be poised to make another Finals run.”
The Heat are coming off yet another heartbreaking defeat in the NBA Finals, having fallen to the Denver Nuggets in five games. This came less than three years after they were outmuscled by the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the 2020 NBA Finals, which took place in the Orlando Bubble.
Miami already has a world-class scorer in Jimmy Butler and one of the game’s elite big men in Bam Adebayo. But adding a five-star playmaker and big-time scorer like Lillard just might help Miami finally get over the championship hump.
If Portland ultimately decides to trade Lillard, the proposed trade package from Piercey certainly makes sense. They’d be getting two valuable draft picks and a pair of quality starters just in the midst of their primes.
