With the Miami Heat’s season hanging in the balance, a lot of people are already looking toward the offseason. Given how many expect the Heat’s season to end, the conversations of how to add talent to the roster have already begun.
Many of those conversations are starting with Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard.
After the Heat’s embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Hawks in the play-in tournament, it became even more clear that the Heat are in need of a dominant scorer. Former NBA guard Brandon Jennings pegged Lillard as an option.
According to one NBA executive, if the Heat want to add Lillard in the offseason, they’re going to have start by making guard Tyler Herro available.
“It would have to start with Tyler Herro, once his extension kicks in, you can send him to Portland,” the exec said, according to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. “Then it is a matter of, can they include Kyle Lowry? Duncan Robinson? Portland would have to take back a bad contract to make it work. So then, how much draft capital is Miami willing to give up? They owe a pick (2025 first-rounder) to OKC (Oklahoma City Thunder), so they can only give up a couple picks, and they could include [Nikola] Jovic. They’d have to put everything into the now and there’s a chance they’re going to be willing to do that.”
If a trade were to take place, it would essentially signal the Heat going all in on their star core and Blazers going all in on the future.
The Heat adding Lillard would give them a Big 3 made up of him, Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. That would be a dangerous trio. Though Adebayo and Butler are fantastic players, scoring from anywhere on the court isn’t exactly either player’s forte.
Lillard would easily be able to fill that need. In the 2022-23 campaign, Lillard put up an incredible 32.2 points per game on 46.3 percent shooting from the field and 37.1 percent shooting from deep.
He added 7.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game on the season as well.
For the Blazers, adding Herro would give them a very talented and young backcourt comprised of him and Anfernee Simons.
In a way, the deal could be a win-win proposition for both franchises, but the executive is definitely right in saying that the Heat would have to find a way to sweeten the pot.
Luckily for Miami, the Heat have possession of most of their future first-round picks. That should give them some flexibility to get a deal together if they end up deciding to pursue that avenue.
For now, the Heat are surely focused on their do-or-die game against the Chicago Bulls set to take place on Friday. Depending on the result of that game, all eyes may soon be on the offseason and a potential blockbuster deal with the Blazers.
