Integrating Damian Lillard

If a trade in fact happens soon, the pressure hits his new team -- presumably Miami -- immediately.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Stage Rehearsal; Edgar Degas; 1878-79

There are reports from all over the map indicating that the Trail Blazers are now seriously engaging in trade talks concerning Damian Lillard, including with the Heat, Lillard’s preferred destination. There is a lot of smoke tying the Suns to the process, with Deandre Ayton potentially headed to Portland. There’s little indication as to what Phoenix would be receiving in such a deal. The assumption remains that when the dust settles, Lillard will join Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in Miami.

The pressure mounts immediately for the Heat.

Miami hasn’t been a club focused on excellent regular season performance in its current form. They have finished in the top-4 in the East just once in the Butler era — in 2021-22, when they won the conference’s top seed in the regular season and were a shot away from the NBA Finals. That was the franchise’s only 50-win season since LeBron left. In the team’s two recent seasons that ended with Finals losses (2020 and 2023), the Heat finished 5th and 7th in the East respectively. This is not a team overly concerned with seedings. They (rightly) believe they can beat any other team in the East.

Miami has also become quite adept at plugging key players in on the fly. They’ve done this primarily with bargain-bin grinders like Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin, Max Strus and Haywood Highsmith. But adding Dame Lillard is going to be a huge adjustment, one that requires lots of lower-stakes on-court repetitions for the core three players and the team around them. It’s just different to add a pleasant surprise from the ranks of the G League and adjust to their contributions vs. adding an All-NBA caliber point guard.

Here are three areas requiring the most adjustment: