It’s been well over two months since Portland Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard requested a trade to the Miami Heat, but a deal between the two teams has yet to materialize.
A recent report indicates that the last time the Heat and Trail Blazers talked about a Lillard trade was during Summer League.
“I spoke w/ somebody on the Heat side 3 days ago. The last discussion, Miami & Portland talked during Summer League & it was brief. Miami was trying to set up some 1-on-1 time in person. That never materialized. That was the last conversation they had” @ChrisBHaynes via @ESPN1320 pic.twitter.com/tqGekZWp3V
— Dru (@dru_star) September 22, 2023
Lillard was selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft by the Trail Blazers after a four-season stint playing college basketball at Weber State University. He averaged 11-plus points and three-plus rebounds per game in each of his four seasons as a member of the Wildcats.
The 6-foot-2 point guard’s best season of college basketball came during his senior season, the 2011-12 season. Lillard averaged 24.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game across 32 appearances with the team as a senior (all starts).
His contributions on the offensive end of the floor translated into a whole lot of success for the 2011-12 iteration of the Wildcats. They finished the season with an excellent 25-7 record but missed out on the NCAA Tournament.
Lillard has played 11 seasons in the NBA, all as a member of the Trail Blazers franchise. The 33-year-old averaged a career-high 32.2 points per game to go along with 4.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game in 58 games played with the Trail Blazers during the 2022-23 regular season (all starts).
Those numbers were good enough for Lillard to earn an All-Star nod — the seventh of his pro career — as well as a spot on the All-NBA Third Team.
Despite Lillard’s terrific 2022-23 regular season, the Trail Blazers missed out on the playoffs. They ended the regular season with a poor 33-49 record and were ahead of only the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference standings. Additionally, the Trail Blazers owned an awful 1-9 record across the final 10 games of the regular season.
The latest report hints that the Heat and Trail Blazers aren’t close to agreeing on a deal to send Lillard to Miami. But it still seems like only a matter of time until the seven-time All-Star lands with the Heat.
