The Utah Jazz may not be in the running for Damian Lillard, yet, but they could still be involved in the trade somehow.
The Miami Heat and Damian Lillard really did a great job making sure the trade both sides wanted didn’t happen. Lillard, and maybe the Heat, leaked information saying that Lillard didn’t want to play for anyone but Miami. And if he were to be traded to another team that wasn’t Miami, he would request a trade to Miami right away.
It’s pretty childish behavior and it really has ruined Lillard’s reputation in the process. The Portland Trail Blazers, the team Lillard just agreed to a new deal with last season, have refused to trade him for anything but what they expect back. They did just give him a raise and a few more years on his deal, only for him to turn around the year after and demand a trade. He could’ve let his deal expire and been a free agent a few times over his career, but he kept re-upping with the Blazers.
Now, he took their money and demanded to go to where he wanted to go all along. Sorry, that’s extortion. He had every right to let his contract expire and sign with the Miami Heat for whatever they could afford him. That’s well within the rights he has as a player.
And he has a right to request a trade if he feels so inclined to do so, but what people forget is that the Blazers have the right to say no, at least say no to a deal that doesn’t work for them. So now Lillard is stuck in Portland, a town that now hates him, and the Heat is no longer an option because they played hardball and lost; something that will likely affect star player Jimmy Butler’s opinion of the franchise.
Now, the Blazers have tried to get Lillard to the Heat, but with the Heat not playing ball, things have changed drastically. Now, it looks like the Blazers are calling teams in the league to get a deal done, and that may include the Utah Jazz, as Jake Fischer ofYahooSports writes;
"At this juncture, Toronto and Chicago have been the two possible destinations for Lillard discussed most by league figures. While a collection of NBA personnel expect Portland to engage Miami before finalizing something with another suitor, the Heat have not factored primarily in the Blazers’ recent dialogue surrounding Lillard, league sources said. Additionally, the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz have materialized as peripheral teams that could factor into larger deals that help facilitate Lillard’s departure from the Blazers."
It seems like the Jazz aren’t likely to land Lillard and that may be for the best, as he’s 33 and proven to be a prima donna to the highest degree, but the Jazz need a point guard and despite his age, he can still score. So there’s a reason to want Lillard, but the Jazz don’t seem to be the team to land Lillard, or at the very least, won’t get Lillard from the trade.
Even though all previous talks of the Jazz and a Lillard trade revolved around them getting Tyler Herro from the Heat, the Jazz are likely to find another way to benefit from the Lillard trade. Specifically, if Lillard goes to Chicago, maybe the Jazz can get back someone like Alex Caruso. Caruso isn’t a huge scorer but his defense would reshape the Jazz’s expectations this season.
Though, until the trade finally happens, if it happens, we won’t know how, or even if, the Jazz benefit from the trade.