Damian Lillard was ultimately traded from the Portland Trail Blazers to the Milwaukee Bucks, bringing an end to the trade controversy.
The seven times NBA All-Star guard, who had previously expressed a strong desire to join the Miami Heat, will be jubilant to work with the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Milwaukee Bucks.
The Toronto Raptors and a few other teams came up in the trade conversation. However, the Portland Trail Blazers and Milwaukee Bucks then established a three-team agreement to send Damian Lillard to Milwaukee, seemingly out of the blue.
As per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, “Lillard goes Milwaukee as part of a 3-team deal with Jrue Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, a 2029 unprotected MIL 1st, and unprotected MIL swap rights in 2028 and 2030 to Blazers. Phoenix lands Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson.”
It was believed that the Miami Heat lacked the resources to acquire Damian Lillard. The Heat’s proposal and the trade package, though, appear to be fairly substantial.
Shams Charania of The Athletic mentions, “The Miami Heat were willing to offer Tyler Herro, Nikola Jovic, 3 first-round picks, first-round pick swaps, and multiple second-round picks for Damian Lillard.
He further explained, “The Portland Trailblazers asked the Miami Heat for Jimmy Butler or Bam Adebayo in their first trade call centered around Damian Lillard.”
As the current MVP of the EC Finals and a six-time NBA All-Star, Jimmy Butler has twice helped the Miami Heat reach the NBA Finals. This exchange for the Miami Heat, however, sounded too heavy to make in order to acquire Lillard.
The team’s second-best player and defensive leader is Bam Adebayo. For the Heat past season, he had game averages of 20.4 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists.
