Time. It marches on unimpeded. And as it does, Damian Lillard continues not to get his desired trade to the Miami Heat. The Portland Trail Blazers still don’t like the offers they’ve gotten so far and thus are not interested in making a trade. Yada, yada, yada. You know the deal by now.

Lillard could get traded any day now when the Heat make an effort to better meet the demands of the Trail Blazers. They are willing to dangle Tyler Herro to a third team to get draft picks but so far, Portland isn’t budging.

Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald shared the most recent non-update on the Lillard situation. “Meanwhile, as of early this week, Portland was still showing no interest in doing a deal with Heat, who visit Blazers in late Feb. in what is reportedly Portland's only national TV game. To me, Lillard has much of leverage based on how messy he's willing to make this (unknown),” he writes.

While the Blazers are clearly signaling for a rebuild, they are in fact the ones with the leverage here. Since the Heat don’t have a great offer to cobble together from their own assets, Portland can afford to wait for the right deal to come around. Lillard making it clear he only wants to join Miami has diminished his trade market, making a deal even less likely as the Blazers look to cash out while the Heat try not to pay an arm and a leg when they’re the only ones at the negotiating table.

The Heat would instantly make themselves one of the title favorites if they land Lillard. Having a shooter and creator of that caliber with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo would give them a formidable star trio. Since Lillard still has several more years on his deal, thus allowing Portland to wait things out, the onus is on Miami to get Portland to re-engage. It differs from the James Harden situation because he is a free agent next summer, so the Philadelphia 76ers have until the trade deadline to get something for him as he makes things messy in his own way.

Just about all the details of this story have been told, if not re-told, as training camp continues to approach. The Heat want Lillard. Lillard wants the Heat. The Blazers want a better trade return. We will all continue to age in dog years until this saga is completed.