The anticipation around Damian Lillard’s future is driving NBA fans crazy, as everyone just wants to see if this will finally be the offseason he moves on from the Portland Trail Blazers. The team selected multiple players in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft instead of making win-now trades that would have appeased Lillard. Now they have a promising young core around an aging superstar, so it seems we’re reaching a natural splitting point between the ambitions of the player and the team.
The Miami Heat have been the rumored destination for Lillard with the team coming off an NBA Finals loss. Lillard may be the piece that puts them over the top and allows Lillard to ‘grind’ by going to a team that isn’t considered a title favorite for next season. The move won’t be easy to execute, but there is a piece in a Lillard to Miami trade that can convince the Lakers to throw some assets and get a player that helps their team look dangerous in the West next season.
In a possible three-team trade including the Lakers, Blazers, and the Heat, all parties can get a step further towards their goal while moving a lot of talent across the league.
Trade Details
Portland Trail Blazers Receive: Jaime Jaquez Jr, Nikola Jovic, Malik Beasley, Mo Bamba, Victor Oladipo, 2024 First-Round Pick (MIA), 2028 First-Round Pick (MIA), 2024 Second-Round Pick (LAC)
Los Angeles Lakers Receive: Tyler Herro
Miami Heat Receive: Damian Lillard
This deal would easily be the biggest in a summer where we have already seen franchises like the Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics start to form superteams. The Heat get to build off a Finals run with one of the best point guards of the generation on the squad, while the Lakers finally address their need for a scoring guard with Herro. The Blazers can firmly step into a rebuild, allowing them to tailor the franchise around the development of Scoot Henderson.
The Trail Blazers Get A Haul Of Assets For Parting With Their Franchise Superstar
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Unless a team that Lillard wants to go to can throw a package of multiple young pieces and picks, this may be the best the Blazers can get. These include two young players in this year’s 18th pick Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Heat sophomore Nikola Jovic. The Blazers also get to tap into the potential of Mo Bamba and see if they can be the destination where he finally realizes his potential. They also acquire Malik Beasley, who can be a shooter they can play or trade for another asset.
With Lillard’s contract, a massive haul of draft assets isn’t as likely as many would assume. Despite that, the Heat get two unprotected picks from Miami. One that conveys next season and will likely be in the 20s, and one that conveys in 2028 and could be after this current era of Heat basketball is over, proving to be valuable.
This could be just the first move for the Blazers, as this opens them up to moving multiple players on their roster. They could facilitate a sign-and-trade for Jerami Grant, while also moving on from veteran center Jusuf Nurkic. Anfernee Simons is young enough to stay on the squad and provide some competitive fire instead of tearing the team down to its studs. The team deemed him untouchable in trade talks in January, as he averaged 21.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 4.1 assists last season and is on a long-term contract. He’s owed about $54 million in total salary from next season until 2025-26.
All players in the incoming trade could be complementary to Scoot on the court. Beasley can stretch the floor (averages 37.8% from three) while Bamba is a versatile shot-blocking center with a shooting touch (1.3 blocks per game over his career). Jaime plays with grit and intensity while Jovic is a s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁ed big that could develop into a possible co-star. Oladipo is expected to spend a chunk of next season injured, so if Portland doesn’t waive him, he can be a terrific mentor to Scoot given the similarities in their s𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁set.
The Lakers Find An Answer To Their Guard Needs
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The Los Angeles Lakers shocked the world in their Western Conference Finals run last season but the lack of talent ultimately held them back. The team recovered from the Russell Westbrook experiment very well, acquiring various assets for a player that was actively harming their squad. Now, they need to return to building a winning roster. Moving Malik Beasley and Mo Bamba as salary fillers to be the team to acquire Tyler Herro in this trade would be a sensational move for the franchise.
Herro is just 23 years old and is entering his fifth season in the NBA. The former Sixth Man of the Year averaged 20.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.2 assists in the regular season as one of the primary scorers for the Heat. While the Heat made the Finals with him on the injury table, his scoring prowess could definitely be of good use in LA, who had to watch D’Angelo Russell average a shocking 6.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in their sweep loss to the Denver Nuggets. D’Lo is a free agent this summer, along with Dennis Schroder, leaving holes in their guard rotation.
LeBron has wanted a guard that can reliably be the team’s primary scorer for a while and there aren’t many such players available on the market. Most options like Kyrie Irving would cost the Lakers their depth, as they’ll need to likely also not re-sign Rui Hachimura to have the financial space to accommodate Irving. Herro is earning $27 million this season and his contract is valid until 2026-27. They would love to get the 23-year-old guard who has a proven playoff resume along with the ability to shoulder the load in the playoffs.
Given LeBron James and Anthony Davis are entering the final year of their contract, the Lakers have to go all-in before either or both men decide to move on in the summer of 2024. Getting Herro is clearly a win-now move that would also ensure the Lakers have some young assets that can compete if their stars depart. Having over $90 million in space open up while players like Herro and possibly Hachimura and Austin Reaves would make LA a very enticing option for future free agents.
The Miami Heat Create A Dangerous Big Three
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Tyler Herro was recently called one of the franchise’s anchors by Tyler Herro, but they’d give him up if it means accommodating Dame and his gargantuan salary. We rarely see a big three as complementary as Lillard, Jimmy Butler, and Bam Adebayo. All play different positions and will have different roles, allowing the Heat to maximize the damage they can do with the three playing together. Lillard averaged 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 7.3 assists last season and made All-NBA Second Team despite the Blazers not being competitive. If he can bring that sort of firepower to the Heat, who had their fair share of offensive issues in the Finals, this team may be unstoppable.
The cost of making this move is pretty significant, as the Heat lose multiple players to make sense of the new salary cap world. They’d want to move off Duncan Robinson in this deal, but it’s highly unlikely that even the Blazers would want that contract given it’s still payable over multiple seasons. The players Portland receive can’t make up for the loss of Lillard in talent but can bring the franchise multiple assets they can either use in future moves or have them develop within their current core.
The contracts of Lillard, Butler, and Adebayo could combine to be worth $112 million in 2023-24, so the Heat will have to get clever with how they fill out their roster. Trading Kyle Lowry will be crucial while finding a home for Max Strus via a sign-and-trade would be another avenue for improving the squad. The Heat win by finding value out of players nobody would’ve expected, and those opportunities still exist for them. Lillard can earn $63 million in 2026-27 at the age of 36 on his current contract.
The Heat have made the Finals twice in the last four seasons, making it to the ECF thrice in that time. They need more to fully get over the hump, as they keep getting out-talented by other teams in all their playoff losses since Butler joined. Lillard would change that, as there are few players in the NBA more lethal than Dame.
A Trade That Shakes Up The NBA
Any day where a player of Damian Lillard’s caliber gets traded is a massive day in the NBA. But when that trade results in Dame joining Jimmy Butler on the Heat, it seems a little more significant given the team just went to the Finals. In addition, this three-team trade would also help the Lakers in addressing their problems with consistent scoring guards that have plagued them since LeBron joined the team in 2018. The Blazers get a ton of assets to reshape their roster in whichever way they see fit around Scoot and other young talents like Shaedon Sharpe and Kris Murray.
The Celtics in the East would be extremely wary of the Heat’s new addition, as they already lost to the Heat this season without Dame. With Marcus Smart being gone, there isn’t an obvious option they can throw at Dame defensively either, so they’d be sweating buckets after acquiring Kristaps Porzingis.
The Suns have a big three full of scorers in Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Kevin Durant, but the Lakers can construct one with a defensive monster in Anthony Davis, a bucket-getter like Tyler Herro, and the all-around greatness of LeBron James. The Nuggets would also take note, but the bridge to compete with them may come after the team can find their rhythm together on the court.
