Miami Heat Receive: G Damian Lillard
Portland Trail Blazers Receive: C Bam Adebayo, G Tyler Herro, MIA 2024 1st Round Pick (Swap Rights, More Favorable to POR), MIA 2025 1st Round Pick (Unprotected), MIA 2026 1st Round Pick (Swap Rights, More Favorable to POR), MIA 2027 1st Round Pick (Unprotected)
Portland is in a very awkward position right now as a franchise because while they do have two fantastic players in Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, they still do not feel like a championship-caliber team. They have made the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons now, but the Blazers have been to the Western Conference Finals just once and they are terrible defensively.
They definitely do not want to trade Damian Lillard, but if he does not envision himself playing under Chauncey Billups and does not see the Portland Trail Blazers contending for a title over the next few seasons, then asking for a trade could definitely make sense for the superstar. At the end of the day, every single player in the league wants to win a championship and if Lillard cannot see himself doing this in Portland, then moving on with his career is the next best thing for him to do.
The Miami Heat at first glance do not seem like a team that could pull off a trade for Lillard, but if they are willing to go “all-in” on this trade, then they could potentially offer the best package to the Trail Blazers.
Bam Adebayo is an All-Star center and Tyler Herro is a young, multi-talented scorer, which is why they would have to likely be included in a deal for Lillard. The Heat would probably love the idea of forming their own “Big 3” with Lillard, Butler and Adebayo, but at the end of the day, I just do not see Portland trading him to Miami without getting Bam Adebayo in return.
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They do have Jusef Nurkic, but with him being in the final year of his contract and the Blazers needing to get better defensively, it just makes a ton of sense that they would want Bam Adebayo in return for Damian Lillard.
Both Adebayo and Herro could play right away for Portland and help them “rebuild” smoothly, as could all of the draft compensation they receive from Miami. Seeing as the Heat have made a ton of trades over the years, the earliest of picks they can offer to Portland would come starting in 2024 with a pick swap and going all the way to 2027, possibly even 2028 if they were to include a first-round pick swap for that year too.
This is a plausible trade package that the Heat could offer to the Portland Trail Blazers, but at the end of the day, do they really benefit from adding Damian Lillard at the expense of Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro? Let’s take a look at this trade from each team’s perspective and see if this is something that could develop into this offseason’s biggest storyline.
