Over the last 24 hours, the rumblings connecting Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard and the Miami Heat have been getting louder.
The Heat seem on the verge of seeing their 2022-23 campaign come to an end, and Lillard’s season has already ended as the Blazers finished as the No. 13 seed in the Western Conference.
Miami is always looking for top talent, and ESPN’s NBA insider Brian Windhorst has already pegged the Heat as a landing spot for the star guard.
Brian Windhorst on the Blazers situation and Heat-Dame 👀👀
“The Heat are ready to go to their next star window” pic.twitter.com/TbrY6tpwFN
— 𝙈𝙚𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙇𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙨 ™ (@AIR305) April 13, 2023
“The team I’m watching is the Miami Heat,” he said. “The Heat are ready to go to their next star window. This is what the Heat do. The Heat hunt stars.”
The Heat certainly do hunt stars, and their hunting endeavors have obtained mixed results in recent years. Of course, the addition of Jimmy Butler via trade has been an incredible one.
Butler has been a cornerstone of the franchise for the last few years and helped the team advance to one NBA Finals appearance and two Eastern Conference Finals appearances during his time in South Florida.
The other move the Heat made in recent years for a star was trading for Kyle Lowry. The Heat nabbed Lowry from the Toronto Raptors, but his tenure with the Heat has been a little bit less exciting. Unfortunately, Lowry’s career seems to be on the downturn, as Father Time appears to be catching up with him.
When it comes to Lillard, he surely has a number of dominant seasons left before his peak years come to an end. He’s just 32 years old right now, though he will be 33 once the 2023-24 season gets underway.
In the 2022-23 campaign, Lillard put up 32.2 points, 7.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game. He’d be a massive addition to the Heat roster and help create a three-headed monster in Miami made alongside Butler and Bam Adebayo.
Without a doubt, that trio would be a major force in the Eastern Conference and could definitely challenge for a title. However, that is looking many steps ahead.
For now, it would be wise for Heat fans to focus on their team’s game on Friday night and worry about the offseason once that gets underway.
