How can Blazers create leverage over Heat in Lillard situation? Pelicans executive explains

At the start of the week, Portland Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin emphasized patience when discussing the process of fulfilling All-Star guard Damian Lillard’s trade request to the Miami Heat. Cronin even said he’s willing to wait months to make a deal.

How much of that is posturing? It’s hard to know the exact answer to that question, but an NBA executive who went through a similar situation a few years ago offered some insight on how Cronin may handle Lillard’s trade demand to the Heat.

“The best thing that can happen to you when you’re in Joe Cronin’s situation, and I know because I lived this, is for the noise to be as loud and just a cacophony of voices that are involved to be as loud as possible,” New Orleans Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations David Griffin said during an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio.

“For people to make up as many things as possible. I want people to invent as many different scenarios as they can and put them out into the universe because it gives you leverage. If there’s actually a chance that you would trade him somewhere other than Miami, you get a much better deal.”

Other than the fact that Lillard has four years left on his current contract, Portland entered this situation without much leverage after arguably the greatest player in Trail Blazers history requested a trade to the Heat and nowhere else.

But by slow-playing the process, Cronin creates more time for the variables to change. Maybe Lillard will soften his stance and expand his list of preferred trade destinations, maybe another team steps up to make an appealing offer to the Trail Blazers or at least shows real interest in trading for Lillard despite his insistence on playing for the Heat, maybe the Heat simply improves its offer or maybe Lillard has a change of heart and decides to stay with the Trail Blazers in the coming days and weeks.

As unlikely as some of those outcomes seem to be, the Trail Blazers need to hope one of them happens.

“We were blessed that the deal we made with L.A. in large part was fueled by all of the noise around other teams,” Griffin said, referring to the trade he made in the 2019 offseason that sent disgruntled star Anthony Davis to the New Orleans Pelicans. “Boston was one of them that was out there as a potential landing spot, and it gave us leverage that we probably didn’t deserve. I think in this situation, they’re going to need to create a landing spot that’s not just Miami because it could be difficult to make that deal.”

In other words, the Trail Blazers need to find a way to create their own leverage. And it appears Portland doesn’t mind delaying things to buy time in an effort to make that happen.

“I think what I’ve learned more than anything is patience is critical,” Cronin said during his press conference in Las Vegas on Monday. “Like, don’t be reactive, don’t jump at things just to seemingly solve a problem. I think the teams that have ended up being the most positive situation post-trade have been the ones that have been really diligent and taking their time and not being impulsive or the teams that have really kept their urgency under control.

“So I think that’s how my approach has been with this and will be with this, is we’re going to be patient. We’re going to do what’s best for our team. We’re going to see how this lands. And if it takes months, it takes months.”

For Griffin, the trade came five months after Davis informed the Pelicans he wanted to play elsewhere in January 2019. The Pelicans agreed to a deal to trade Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers in June 2019 for Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round picks.

“The way [Lakers general manager] Rob Pelinka approached it was understanding we weren’t going to make a bad deal,” Griffin said. “So he was really careful not to make an ‘offer’ out of the gate. It was to sort of have conceptual conversations about what something would need to look like. I think you can approach these things a lot of different ways.”

Cronin will need to find a way to create some leverage, whether that’s through his own words, outside speculation or another team showing real interest in trading for Lillard. Maybe time will serve as Portland’s leverage to get Miami to improve its offer, testing the Heat’s patience to see how long it’s willing to wait to acquire Lillard.

“Joe Cronin is not going to make a deal where he’s made to look like he made a bad deal,” Griffin said. “I’m certain of that. So, whatever ends up happening and the way the deal comes together, it’s going to rely upon a lot of things that Joe can manufacture some of.”

▪ The Heat opens a back-to-back set in Las Vegas Summer League on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks (5:30 p.m., NBA TV). Miami plays its fourth of five summer league games in Las Vegas on Friday against the Denver Nuggets (8:30 p.m., NBA TV).