It is the NBA offseason, AKA Damian Lillard trade rumor SZN. If you've been on the internet over the last week you know why this article is being written. Lillard is 32 years old and coming off his best season. The window for him to win a championship as the central player on a roster is rapidly closing. The Portland Trail Blazers, knowing this, still selected Scoot Henderson in the NBA Draft last Thursday instead of flipping him or the pick for a veteran player capable of helping drive the team to championship heights this season.
This sequence of events feels like it is paving a road to Lillard finally asking the Blazers to trade him. The superstar point guard probably has "loyalty" literally tattooed on his body somewhere given how often he talks about it, but the Blazers simply are not going to push all their chips into the middle right now. The latest report from Brian Windhorst on Tuesday claims Lillard wants to wait and see what Portland does in free agency before doing anything drastic.
That's all well and good but the Blazers are going to struggle to do much in free agency. Their cap sheet is pretty loaded already and that's before they presumably attempt to re-sign Jerami Grant. Once they do that the best thing they can do is trade Anfernee Simons and/or Jusuf Nurkic, who have very different values but share the common trait of other teams knowing the Blazers want to move them. So finding a good deal might already be off the table and Portland will seriously consider rolling into next season with largely the same roster plus Henderson.
That is both the likeliest outcome and the most undesirable for Dame. Unless the Blazers pull off something crazy, Lillard becoming unhappy with the direction of the team seems inevitable. Thus, let's break down the teams who could possibly make a move for Lillard if it comes down to a bidding war.
Miami Heat
Lillard does not have a no-trade clause but the Blazers are almost certainly going to adhere to his wishes if he asks to be traded to a specific team. The Heat were named by the All-Star as one of the teams he would like to play for on a recent podcast and he posted on Instagram dancing to a song called "Miami." Coincidence? I think not!
In all seriousness it's going to be Miami and everybody else if Lillard asks out. The Heat have the optimal combination of tradable contracts, winning culture, and desperation to make it happen. Is a package centered around Tyler Herro and draft picks that are going to stink a good package? Not really. But it'll probably be as good as the Blazers can get while still doing "right" by Lillard. Whether or not they should feel obligated to do that is a different discussion. But they will, and teaming up Lillard with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo is worth just about any price for the Heat.
Brooklyn Nets
During the same podcast we mentioned above Lillard also revealed he's pals with Mikal Bridges and wouldn't mind playing for the Brooklyn Nets. Coincidentally, those same Nets are in a position where it would actually make sense to burn all the assets they got in the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trades for Lillard because they owe their own draft picks to Houston. The picks Brooklyn does own are actually pretty valuable given they come down the road from the Suns and Mavs, both of whom are teetering on the edge of disaster for different reasons in 2023 and may be entirely in the hole by 2027 or 2029.
Brooklyn would probably have to overpay to land Lillard and at that point it remains to be seen how competitive they'd actually be. But trading Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead, the two players they took in the draft last week, along with some salary-matching parts (including Ben Simmons) is a pretty good start. Lillard and Bridges would be an exciting duo that would sell tickets and probably be pretty competitive in the East if Brooklyn manages to keep Nic Claxton. It's not a championship squad but they'd be better than what the Blazers are right now.
Boston Celtics
Guess who's in win-now mode and just lost their only true point guard? That's right -- the Boston Celtics, a true wildcard team in Lillard discussions. The Celtics are already pretty all-in after trading Marcus Smart in order to acquire Kristaps Porzingis and his $36 million salary. Why not add Lillard to the mix? They could offer up Robert Williams III and all their draft picks for the foreseeable future along with second-round pick Jordan Walsh, rotation guard Payton Pritchard, and Malcolm Brogdon (if healthy). They could swap Brogdon for a Grant Williams sign-and-trade. It is unlikely Boston would trade Derrick White but if Portland pushes hard enough anything could happen.
It doesn't really feel like a move the Celtics would make but nobody on earth thought they were going to trade Smart so whatever we think we know about Brad Stevens as a general manager should probably be discarded. For the Blazers this would be a bet on Boston blowing up. They'd be trading Lillard for a top-four protected Warriors pick next year, a bunch of second-rounders, and all of Boston's firsts in the next six or eight years. It would be a bet that Lillard wouldn't work, his presence would force the team to trade Jaylen Brown, and then things get so bad Jayson Tatum asks out. Frankly not entirely out of the realm of possibility. At the same time, the Celtics with two superstar wings and a great point guard averaging 30 points per game on his own would look mighty dangerous. You can see why both sides would at least think about it. There are probably better options out there for Portland and Lillard literally scoffed when asked if he would play for Boston on that now-infamous podcast, but the chance to shoot for a ring does not come around often.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Three Damian Lillard Trade Destinations .
