Did the NBA just cost the Utah Jazz the ability to land Tyler Herro?

The NBA has made it clear that superstars can’t force trades, but did that hurt the Utah Jazz’s chances at Tyler Herro?

The Utah Jazz are trying to rebuild their very good team, into a very great team. They got only so far with Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, so the Jazz traded them off for massive hauls, and started rebuilding around surprise superstar Lauri Markkanen. The team has been in great shape so far, building out the roster slowly but when rumors of Damian Lillard’s interest in playing elsewhere popped up, somehow the Jazz ended up in rumors to land Tyler Herro.

The long and short of it was that the Trail Blazers were open to trading Lillard to his preferred landing spot, Miami, but Miami’s biggest chip to move was Herro. The Trail Blazers are filled with enough guards to last them a lifetime at the moment, so Herro made little sense for the Blazers to take back.

That’s where the Jazz would come into play, as the Jazz would take Herro in exchange for some capital sent to Portland. The trade made sense, as it further improved the Jazz’s offense, and gave them a young and reliable playmaker, while also giving the Jazz even more spacing.

But then the NBA told Lillard to knock off his “will only play for Miami” mentality.

And honestly, good on the NBA. Once you sign that fully guaranteed contract, you really have no right to whine and moan. If you wanted to go to Miami, you should’ve before re-signing with the Trail Blazers. This goes for every NBA or pro sports athlete. You may have to sacrifice something in the long haul; welcome to the real world.

But in doing so, this further opens the door to ship Lillard to wherever now, meaning Miami isn’t the obvious choice anymore. This means that Herro isn’t likely to get dealt and that Utah probably won’t be able to land him unless the relationship between Herro and the Heat deteriorates so much that they want to ship him out.

While landing Herro would be fantastic, the Heat should stay the course, as home-grown teams are far more likely to succeed, and Herro probably gives them their best chance of success.