Beggers can’t be choosers when you’re asking to join a contender from a lottery team. Damian Lillard has FINALLY and RIGHTFULLY asked out of Portland after 11 years of playoff misery and lottery pick seasons, yet him demanding to just join the Heat is an insane demand to make.
How can you reject all steak dinners and demand for a 5-star, Japanese A5 Kobe steak dinner every night after spending the entirety of your life eating mayonnaise-drenched Burger King Whoopers? You should at least be able to eat some Prime Rib cuts when offered to you.
The failures of the Portland Trail Blazers have finally cracked Dame Lillard’s confidence in the franchise as he made the first official trade request of his career after 11 years with the team, yet his demand of ONLY playing for the Miami Heat really hampers his beloved Trail Blazers. And, if you couldn’t tell by my horrible steak dinner analogies, I think Dame is completely in the right for wanting out…but not in the way he’s demanding.
As I said in that stupid steak dinner analogy, how can you go from eating soggy Whoppers for 11 straight years to rejecting all steak dinners, with the majority offered being beautifully cooked Prime Rib cuts, except for a Japanese Kobe cut? If you’re not a steak dinner aficionado (which I’m really not either but I know these two cuts), then the rumors coming out of this trade demand is that Damian Lillard only wants to play for the Miami Heat if and when he’s traded by the Trail Blazers.
And, when you see that contending teams like the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Clippers are also in for you, it makes zero sense as to why he’d turn his nose up at them if his only motivation is to win a championship as he’s made so evidently known during his many media appearances.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand why Dame Lillard wants to play for the Miami Heat as the Heat have been the most successful Eastern Conference team over the last five years (4 playoff appearances, 3 ECF appearances, 2 Eastern Conference titles, 2 Finals appearances)…and its Miami.
Who wouldn’t want to play and live in Miami?
Nevertheless, if the rumors are true and Lillard doesn’t want to go to the Celtics or Clippers, I’ve got no idea why Lillard is not only hamstringing the Trailer Blazers into making a bad move to send Lillard over to the Heat, but also why he’s ruining his chances of winning a championship with other great teams.
First off, Lillard has made his entire career and reputation based off his loyalty to Portland and the Trail Blazers organization. It’s perfectly acceptable to want out after a decade of failure and mismanagement, but why would your shiv the team into making a poor deal that’ll set them back even further? I mean, Miami is great, but living in Boston or Los Angeles isn’t some trip to Guantanamo Bay or something like that.
Plus, both the Celtics and Clippers (if Lillard is on their roster) have just as good of a chance of winning the championship as the Miami Heat do with Lillard, and I’d actually argue both these teams would be better off than the Heat.
The Celtics would have Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, maybe Jaylen Brown (but probably not), Derrick White, maybe Malcolm Brogdon, Al Horford, and Robert Williams III to compete with Dame Lillard, while the Clippers would have a mix of Kawai Leonard, Paul George, Russell Westbrook, Norman Powell, Mason Plumlee, Ivica Zubac, Marcus Morris Sr., Nicolas Batum, Bones Hyland, and Terence Mann.
As of this moment, I’d take both of these rosters to beat the current day version of the Miami Heat as the Heat lost Victor Oladipo, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Udonis Haslem, and Cody Zeller this offseason. Losing these guys isn’t the end-all be-all for the Heat’s shot at a title, but it does make their “any man can step up” play style far more reliant on Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo to carry them to victory.
And, as we saw in the Finals, that was a task these guys just couldn’t get done against better, physical, and more talented teams.
So, if Lillard was to leave Portland for Miami, I would have a hard time seeing how Tyler Herro, Caleb Martin, and Duncan Robinson, three very valuable pieces in the Heat’s rotation, aren’t apart of the compensation heading back to Portland. And a “Big 3” with no depth will not win you the NBA championship as we saw with the Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns over these last few years.
I hope these rumors about Dame playing for Miami or bust are not true as he’s too talented and too dedicated to the game of basketball to spend more time on uncompetitive rosters.
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