Miami Heat Receive: G Damian Lillard
Portland Trail Blazers Receive: G Tyler Herro, G Kendrick Nunn, F Andre Iguodala, F/C Kelly Olynyk, MIA 2022 1st Round Pick, MIA 2025 1st Round Pick
If this mega-blockbuster trade was to go down, it would not only shake up the entire NBA but immediately make the Miami Heat one of the teams to beat in the Eastern Conference. Pairing Damian Lillard up with Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, and Goran Dragic would make the Miami Heat a very tough team to beat and be a dream come true for Pat Riley and the Heat organization.
They would however have to give up quite a massive trade package in return for the NBA MVP candidate. Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn are two very promising young, second-year players and veterans Andre Iguodala and Kelly Olynyk can still play at a high-level, but are a part of the trade package due to their contract sizes to make the financials of this trade balance out.
Starting with Tyler Herro, he had a fantastic rookie season last year where he earned All-Rookie honors and was a focal point of Miami’s offense. He was instrumental to their success down the stretch and was a major reason why they made it all the way to the NBA Finals. In just one season, Herro has proven that he is a big-time perimeter threat and a guy who does not back down to any challenge.
Kendrick Nunn was another rookie for the Heat last year who had a magnificent season. After going undrafted in 2018, Nunn worked his way onto the Heat’s 15-man roster and immediately made an impact. Nunn was also voted onto the All-Rookie team and was in the running for Rookie of the Year. He finished behind only Ja Morant in the Rookie of the Year voting, finishing second in front of No. 1 overall pick, Zion Williamson.
With these two young guards to build with for the foreseeable future, as well as two future first-round picks, the Portland Trail Blazers would be set up for success now and down the road. Not to mention, they would still have C.J. McCollum, Gary Trent Jr., Robert Covington and Jusef Nurkic.
Without Damian Lillard, this Portland team could be better in the sense of spreading the wealth and getting more players involved, but as said earlier, it is a massive stretch to say that Portland wants to trade Lillard. Hypothetically, this trade could end up working for both parties, but at this time, there has been no mention of Lillard wanting out of Portland and/or Portland wanting to trade Lillard.
Regardless of the situation, let’s take a closer look at how this trade could benefit both the Miami Heat and the Portland Trail Blazers.
