Do Joe Cronin and the Portland Trail Blazers have some unexplainable grudge towards the Miami Heat? As many NBA fans should have certainly heard by now, this long NBA offseason has been filled with trade discussions regarding Damian Lillard. He publicly made it clear that he no longer wanted to play for the Blazers and requested a trade to the Miami Heat.
As fans might know, that desire clearly wasn’t fulfilled as the Portland Trail Blazers decided to trade away their star point guard in Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks. Since we are living in a player-empowered era, this news caught the NBA world off guard since many fans believed that Lillard would inevitably be traded to the Miami Heat.
Now, recent reports have revealed that the Blazers made the situation worse for the Miami Heat by making yet another trade. Let us take a better look at the situation and find out more.
The Miami Heat showed interest in acquiring Jrue Holiday from the Portland Trail Blazers
Blazers fans will be aware that Damian Lillard ended up being traded to the Bucks in a three-team deal. In return, Portland received Jrue Holiday from the Milwaukee Bucks among several other assets. Since the Blazers are expecting to enter a rebuild, it made no sense for them to have a veteran point guard such as Holiday on the roster.
Therefore, the Blazers decided to trade him to the Boston Celtics. By pairing Holiday with talented players such as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, Joe Cronin has ensured that the Miami Heat’s chances of making the Finals once again have drastically deteriorated.
To make matters worse for the Heat, recent reports have revealed that they were interested in acquiring Jrue Holiday from the Blazers. However, Portland ended up sending him to the Celtics and left the Heat empty-handed in the process.
The Miami Heat submitted a significant bid for Jrue Holiday, but Portland ultimately accepted an offer from the Boston Celtics, per Brian Windhorst pic.twitter.com/b7row8RPJE
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 2, 2023
that’s a big loss for heat, jrue is a really good fit to them, i guess Portland still holds little bit grudge against heat after they lowballed Portland for the dame trade saga…
— Wayne Lee (@WayneLee1078) October 2, 2023
This has even led some fans to believe that the Portland Trail Blazers do not want to help the Miami Heat at all. After all, they have ensured that the Heat get neither Dame nor Jrue in this entire trade process. In any case, we look forward to finding out what other changes the Heat make to their roster in order to remain in contention for an NBA title.
