MIAMI — If the Portland Trail Blazers’ significant investment in youth during Thursday’s NBA draft means making All-Star guard Damian Lillard available for a trade pitch by the Miami Heat, the initial rhetoric indicates more of a waiting game.
With the Blazers having ample opportunity during the draft to trade picks for veteran support for Lillard, Portland instead moved Thursday as a team more invested in the longer term than placating the desires of 32-year-old Lillard to be surrounded with playoff-tested talent.
Ahead of the draft, numerous reports linked Lillard to trade interest by the Heat, with Lillard having spoken of intrigue with playing alongside 2021 Olympic teammate Bam Adebayo, the Heat’s All-Star center.
Potential Heat focus on Lillard appeared to grow more steeled with Pat Riley and the Heat’s front office putting forward what appeared to be only cursory interest in Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal, who had the Heat on his list of preferred trade destinations but instead this week was dealt to the Phoenix Suns.
Amid the Lillard uncertainty, Trail Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin took the somewhat unusual approach of immediately addressing the guard’s situation in the wake of Portland in Thursday night’s draft landing G League guard Scoot Henderson at No. 3, Iowa forward Kris Murray at No. 23 and French wing Rayan Rupert at No. 43.
Cronin said the Blazers were in touch with Lillard and his representation throughout the draft process, “Trying to communicate and be upfront and make sure we’re all on the same page.”
Cronin then was asked whether the intention was to build around Lillard.
“It is,” he said. “There’s nothing we want more than, number one, for Dame to retire a Trail Blazer, and two, put a winner around him, a high-end winner. I think that’s what gets misconstrued about Dame sometimes, like for us, it’s an incredible problem to have. We have the best player in Trail Blazers history, that wants to be here and wants to have a winner put around him, and that’s our challenge. That’s where we’ve got to keep doing our thing and find ways to make this team as competitive as possible, as quickly as possible.
“We’ve got to obviously do a good job in free agency and in the trade market, especially in this activity window the next two, three weeks. We’ve planted a lot of seeds on some deals, a lot of these deals we talked about outside of (draft slot) three, they weren’t necessarily draft related. So sometimes these deals will carry through to . . . could be tomorrow, could be next week, could be going into free agency or outside of the moratorium. We’ve added some young players, the goal now is to add some veteran players that can continue to ramp up this team.”
The NBA’s free-agency negotiating period opens June 30, with the league’s signing moratorium ending July 6.
Cronin spoke of a hope of Lillard and Henderson playing together, although the Blazers now find themselves with a glut at guard.
But he also said he did not feel his team was in danger of losing Lillard.
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I think Dame badly, badly wants to win and he’s probably being more vocal about that than ever, but I don’t look at that as a negative. I look at that as he’s passionate about this, it matters deeply to him and it matters deeply to us.”
For his part, Henderson spoke of the desire to play alongside Lillard in Portland.
“I’m hoping to get to play with Dame, for sure — special talent, special guard,” he said. “One of my favorites to watch, especially film-wise, just to pick out how he moves off the court, as well. Yeah, it would be cool to play with him.”
Summer roster
The Heat continue to work to fill out a summer roster already expected to include Thursday’s No. 18 pick Jaime Jaquez Jr., 2022 first-round pick Nikola Jovic, Heat 2023 G League prospect Jamaree Bouyea and 2022-23 two-way players Jamal Cain and Orlando Robinson.
Among those agreeing to work with the Heat’s summer roster are several prospects who went undrafted Thursday, including Southern Cal forward Drew Peterson, Villanova guard Caleb Daniels, Washington State guard Justin Powell, Marist center Patrick Gardner, Utah State forward Taylor Funk, Western Illinois guard Trenton Massner, Northwestern guard Chase Audige and Georgia Tech forward Ja’von Franklin.
The Heat open summer-league play July 3 at the California Classic in Sacramento against a similar roster of draft picks, free agents and prospects from the Los Angeles Lakers. Following a July 5 game there against the Sacramento Kings’ summer roster, the Heat then move on to the larger NBA Las Vegas Summer League for two weeks of games.
Vegas set
The NBA on Friday announced the Heat’s schedule in Las Vegas (all times Eastern):
Sat. July 8, 3 p.m. vs. Celtics, NBA TV
Mon. July 10, 6:30 p.m. vs. Suns, NBA TV
Thu. July 13, 5:30 p.m. vs. Bucks, NBA TV
Fri. July 14, 9 p.m. vs. Nuggets, ESPN2
(Plus one more game in tournament round.)
