5 teams who will regret not beating Bucks' offer for Damian Lillard

1. Why the Heat will regret not trading for Damian Lillard

In the end, it felt like the Blazers were determined to send Lillard somewhere other than Miami. The Heat didn't even get the chance to counter Milwaukee's final offer, which goes to show how far apart the two sides were. For Lillard's agency to even hint at Milwaukee as a desirable destination probably took a serious lack of traction on the Heat front.

Still... Miami had the chance to make their best possible offer — including Tyler Herro, Caleb Martin, and the full complement of young prospects and draft picks — but never did. The Heat are an old team with very little financial flexibility. Miami is always a star destination, and Lillard won't be the last high-level player to come knocking, but there are only so many top-20 players who fight tooth and nail for Miami and only Miami. The Heat didn't deliver.

Now the Bucks are towering title favorites in the East. Jimmy Butler gets another year older and the Heat's supporting cast looks worse than last season. Miami's 2023 Finals run was built on a rather improbable hot spell from 3-point range. Don't count on a statistical anomaly to save them again. Miami was the No. 8 seed last season, a team riddled with plenty of glaring holes. To get Dame without giving up either Butler or Adebayo would have truly kept the Heat on the map. Now, the reigning conference champs feel like afterthoughts.

This will all sound silly when the next superstar demands a trade to Miami, but the Heat have missed out on a string of potential stars to pair with Butler and Adebayo. Blockbuster trade requests are the way of the NBA world nowadays, but Dame represents a huge failure on the part of Miami's front office. Maybe the Blazers simply preferred Ayton to Herro and that's that, but it's clear the Heat never made their best offer. Whether that was strategic or a misfire in judgement, we may never know. All we do know is that it was a mistake.