The Damian Willard trade rumors refuse to die down, with the player requesting a trade from the Trailblazers in July already.

The talks have not gone so smoothly and now in mid-September it remains the status quo despite his pleas to go to the Miami Heat as a preferred destination.

“You don’t want the same thing no more and you show me that you don’t want the same thing. We don’t want the same thing,” Lillard expressed rather cryptically recently, ostensibly to the Portland team’s upper management.

The point guard has been with Portland for the past 11 years, and is under contract until 2026, but he wants a move away from the team despite admitting that “In a perfect world, I could spend my entire career in Portland”.

He was speaking on the It Is What It Is Show and said he could have requested a trade for many years prior to this offseason but kept on believing the team could push on and be serial championship contenders.

That has not happened at the Blazers, and with the team in a rebuilding phase, the 33-year-old is desperate for titles and glory, and he believes the Heat will offer him the best opportunities.

The Heat have not gone all in on Lillard, despite the saga going on for months, but they are interested, as are the 76ers, the Nets and the Celtics.

The sixth overall pick in 2012 is a seven-time NBA All-Star and an All-NBA First-Team choice in 2018.

He has played a whopping 769 games for the Trailblazers with a career average of 25.2 PPG, and 32.2 last season.

He also has an assist average of 6.7 and will be an asset to any team in the league.