Insider thinks two teams could ’emerge’ to push Heat for Damian Lillard

Because the NBA world awaits any potential information on a possible Damian Lillard commerce, the Portland Path Blazers have remained quiet and affected person. The commerce buzz and rumors swirling round Lillard from months in the past have died down and even the more and more fashionable matter of how a potential commerce to the Miami Warmth may look has been stagnant as of late.

And in line with Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, it’s as a result of potential of 1 large “what if” that’s a reasonably real looking and cheap final result — ought to Lillard be with the Blazers for this for much longer.

Among the many causes Portland has not made a transfer with Lillard—and why I believe it’s potential, even doubtless, that Lillard is on the Blazers roster when coaching camps open in a couple of weeks—is as a result of Joe Cronin and Co. imagine a market will emerge. And so they could also be proper. What’s going to the 76ers’ priorities be if or after they transfer James Harden? What if the Timberwolves all of the sudden put Karl-Anthony Cities on the desk? Competitors is perhaps the nudge Miami must beef up its supply.

It’s an attention-grabbing idea and the 2 groups particularly talked about within the Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves make lots of sense. Doubtlessly pairing Lillard with Joel Embiid or with Rudy Gobert and Anthony Edwards would certainly have enchantment for these groups, at the least on the floor.

Nevertheless it additionally doesn’t change the underlying situation right here, which is that it’s extensively recognized that Lillard’s need is to hitch the Miami Warmth, so even at that stage, every other crew stepping in and hanging a deal must marvel the way it’ll play out. For the Sixers, as the instance, do they actually need to take the danger that there’s one other disgruntled celebrity teaming up with Embiid? If that wound up turning into a problem, who’s to say that the Sixers don’t wind up having to half with Lillard and Embiid in some unspecified time in the future over the frustration of a rotating high finish of the roster?

It’s anybody’s guess.