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It has now been nearly two months since Portland Trail Blazers superstar point guard Damian Lillard requested a trade out of Portland (July 1). However, it appears that the Blazers still aren't close to trading Lillard.
While the Miami Heat has emerged as the most prominent rumored trade destination for the talented point guard, Portland has thus far displayed little interest in the proposed trade package from the Heat, which includes Tyler Herro, prospective players, and draft compensation.
This has led some some analysts, such as Bill Simmons from The Ringer, to consider alternative plausible landing spots for Lillard.
During a recent episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” Simmons floated the idea of a one-for-one swap of Lillard for Timberwolves star big man Karl-Anthony Towns:
“You wonder if Dame Lillard is watching this going, ‘You know what? Me for Towns. You just switch us,’” Simmons said.
“‘We'd have Gobert. We'd have Edwards. It’s kinda nice. Me and Ant together. I'd be aligned with this guy who's clearly gonna be one of the best five or six guys in the league. Maybe that’s a better situation for me than anywhere else, and I wanna win a title, and this doesn't seem unrealistic to me. F**k it, Minnesota, I’m adding them to the list.’”
After acquiring star center Rudy Gobert from Utah last offseason, the Wolves went just 42-40 last season (eight in the Western Conference). Many have called for the team to make a trade that balances out their frontcourt-heavy roster around star shooting guard Anthony Edwards.
A potential Lillard-Towns trade could address this imbalance and provide Minnesota with one of the league's premier backcourts, composed of Lillard and Edwards.
Given that Towns is still only 27, he should still be able to factor into the Blazers’ retool around 2023 No. 3 pick Scoot Henderson. He would also mark a considerable upgrade over Jusuf Nurkic at the center spot.
Lillard, 33, averaged a career-high 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 0.9 steals, and 4.2 3-pointers per game on 46.3% shooting over 58 games last season.
Meanwhile, Towns averaged 20.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 4.8 apg, 0.7 spg, 0.6 bpg, and 2.1 3pg on 49.5% shooting over 29 games last season.
Also read: Erik Spoelstra content with current Heat squad despite failing to land Damian Lillard
Bill Simmons thinks Portland will hold Damian Lillard into the start of next season
While Bill Simmons thinks that Damian Lillard to Minnesota makes sense in theory, he doesn't anticipate a swift resolution to the situation. Later in his podcast, Simmons predicted that Portland will likely retain Lillard until the start of the 2023-24 NBA season, citing the belief that better trade options could materialize closer to the end of the year:
“I know what Portland’s gonna do. They’re just gonna go into the season with Dame,” Simmons said.
“They’re gonna bank on the fact he wants to play basketball. And then they’re gonna know that a better trade will be available in December. They’re not gonna take that crappy Miami thing.”
