The Heat are getting “frustrated” over the slow pace of trade talks with the Trail Blazers regarding Damian Lillard, Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report said on the latest edition of the “This League Uncut” podcast (hat tip to Kurt Helin of NBC Sports). It’s been nearly three weeks since Lillard made his trade request and told Portland officials that he wants to play in Miami, but there’s been very little progress toward a deal.
“Portland is telling them to, ‘Bring us your best offer.’ Miami would like to know what does Portland want and Miami is not getting that answer,” Haynes said. “And so they feel like things could be moving on a little bit quicker if Portland would say exactly what it is they want. Because obviously, Miami doesn’t have all the assets that Portland would want in a return for a Damian Lillard trade. So they want to know, OK, what do we have to get out there? What other teams do we have to get involved to make this work? And so far, the communication is just not there.”
On the Heat Check podcast, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald expressed doubt that the Blazers are trying very hard to grant Lillard’s trade request, at least for now. Chiang said a source told him that Portland may be planning to hold on to Lillard for a while to see if he changes his mind about his future with the team.
That thought is echoed by Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, who tweets that a team that contacted the Blazers about Lillard is skeptical that they actually want to move him. Jackson suggests that Portland’s goal may be to get Lillard into training camp, unless he makes the situation really uncomfortable for the rest of the summer.
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