3 Trades The Trail Blazers Should Consider Making
By Karthik Krishnamurthy
This article was originally published on December 13th, 2020.
After a disappointing loss in the first round of the playoffs to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Portland Trail Blazers have some questions to answer in the off season. Namely, how will they upgrade for a finals run or two in star point guard Damian Lillard’s prime? Unfortunately, with a tight salary cap, the Blazers are limited in how they can approach free agency. But with some smart trades, the Blazers can certainly become a title contender next year. Here are 3 trades that the Blazers should seriously consider executing in the off season.
Trade #1
POR gets: Thaddeus Young, Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr.
CHI gets: CJ McCollum, Wenyen Gabriel, 15th pick in 2020 draft
Portland badly needs depth in addition to a PF (Power Forward) and an affordable, skilled defender at SF (Small Forward). They also would like to dump center Hassan Whiteside, who, despite his stat sheet, was largely a liability for the Blazers last season. Thanks to the recent emergence of Gary Trent Jr., the Blazers can solve all of those problems in one fell swoop by trading current starting shooting guard CJ McCollum, deep bench player Wenyen Gabriel, and a first-rounder. In exchange, they receive SF/PF Thaddeus Young, who meshes perfectly with the Blazers offense, PF Lauri Markkanen, a high-quality power forward, and Wendell Carter Jr., who can add some serious depth behind center Jusuf Nurkic. These moves allow the Blazers to replace Trevor Ariza and Hassan Whiteside, paving the way to cut them. This leaves the team with over $45 million in cap room, with which they can sign a backup shooting guard and some solid veterans, like JaMychal Green. They also can easily sign some high-end players, like Danilo Gallinari, who some experts are saying would make the Blazers the best 3-point shooting team, or Jae Crowder, who can provide some much-needed defense. Essentially, this trade directly gets the Blazers players that combine to have about the same caliber as CJ, but because of their cheapness, allow the team to sign a lot more talent.
After a disappointing year with just a 33.8% winning percentage in the regular season, the Bulls are going to need to shake their roster up to win more games. There aren’t many players that can fill that need better than CJ McCollum, who is poised to feast in the East. The Bulls can make good use of the extra first-rounder to select from the glut of good wings available for grabs. A CJ-LaVine backcourt probably won’t make the Bulls instant title contenders, but at the very least, they should see substantial improvement and make the playoffs.
This might not be the flashiest or the splashiest trade, but it will help build a stronger, deeper roster that gets the Blazers considerable improvement instantly.
Trade #2
POR gets: Anthony Davis, JaVale McGee, Jared Dudley
LAL gets: CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, Jaylen Hoard, Jaylen Adams, Moses Brown, 15th pick in 2020 draft, unrestricted first-round pick in 2022 draft, restricted first-round pick in 2024 draft
Blazers fans remember all too well the destruction that Anthony Davis wreaked alongside Lebron James in the playoffs. Now imagine if Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis could join forces. Just the thought of the devastating pick-and-roll alone has to have Blazers fans salivating at the mouth. An AD-Dame combo would practically be a guaranteed berth to the Finals. If the Blazers aren’t going to waste the prime of the player that just might go down as the greatest to ever play for the franchise, they need to make win-now moves, and trading for Anthony Davis fits that bill. While the loss of CJ and Nurkic will hurt, JaVale McGee can step in as a serviceable center. The Blazers can cut Ariza, who’s in the books for over $12 million, and possibly couple that with cutting Whiteside or executing a sign-and-trade of him, to clear up huge amounts of cap space that opens up almost unlimited possibilities for the Blazers. They could target players like the aforementioned Jae Crowder, Danilo Gallinari, and JaMychal Green in free agency, or even make a bigger splash and sign someone like Goran Dragic or DeMar DeRozan. The Achilles heel for the Lakers in the 2020 playoffs was their lack of depth; they dropped a few games as a result, but the combination of Davis and LeBron James was enough to power through their opponent in the end. However, by executing this trade, not only do the Blazers stock up substantially in star power, but they’ll also be able to acquire the depth requisite for almost any great team. With this move, the Blazers become instant title contenders.
Now why in the world would the Lakers agree to this trade, you might ask? After all, didn’t Anthony Davis say he wanted to re-sign with the Lakers? The Lakers would be title contenders either way, right? While it’s true that they would be championship contenders again for the next season, their title run didn’t come without its costs. LeBron James is 35 years old, and the toll of an NBA season gets harder and harder to bear with age. Believe it or not, it won’t be that many years before he retires. While keeping Davis would be the smart move for the time being, it would be smarter to trade him and reap the benefits that will extend long into the future. The Lakers are currently slotted to draft at the №28 position in this year’s draft. A move up to №15 could pay huge dividends in the long run. And that’s not even taking into account the acquisition of a first-rounder in the 2022 draft, and especially the 2024 draft, aka the “double draft”, where high school players will be able to declare for the draft immediately after their senior year, likely doubling the size of the draft pool. The Blazers could throw in their second-round pick for this year if needed as well. The Lakers also receive a hoard of young players that they can develop into solid contributors, while CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic are star players that, alongside LeBron, the Lakers can build around for the immediate future. As for the upcoming season, they would still be title contenders with LeBron at the helm.
For the Blazers, this trade sacrifices the future and goes all-in on win-now mode. Would it be a good trade? Absolutely. But would it win a championship? That remains to be seen.
Trade #3
POR gets: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton
MIL gets: CJ McCollum, Zach Collins, Jusuf Nurkic, Trevor Ariza, Wenyen Gabriel, 15th pick in 2020 draft, unrestricted 2022 first-round pick, unrestricted 2024 first-round pick
If the Blazers are going to go big, they may as well go sky-high, right? And what bigger could it get than acquiring the MVP for two years in a row? Giannis is a lethal player on any team, but paired with Damian Lillard, he can ascend to even scarier heights. Khris Middleton, who is statistically and empirically actually better than CJ, is a perfect fit on the Blazers. The addition of Giannis would make any team instant title contenders, but getting Khris Middleton in the deal as well would make the Blazers title favorites.
The Bucks do lose their star players, but they get a treasure chest in return. CJ and Nurkic can easily take the Bucks to the playoffs on their own in the weaker Eastern Conference, and the team has enough depth to be able to progress further. Ariza is an asset that can be flipped for a better player. Collins may just develop into a star center or power forward. Wenyen Gabriel is a project, but his hustle will be welcomed on a team that played without energy en route to a crushing defeat at the hands of the Heat. They also acquire three first-rounders in return, including an unrestricted one in the double draft of 2024, giving them a great foundation for the future. While the coming year probably won’t be as successful as the previous season, it’s better than the alternative for the Bucks, which is to allow Giannis the ability to leave for another “superteam” in 2021 for absolutely nothing in return.
The Blazers could easily sweeten the pot by throwing in some of their other younger players, like Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little. But despite the number of picks and players the Blazers would have to throw at the Bucks to make a Giannis-and-Khris trade work, it would all be worth it in the end, because they would be able to steamroll through the playoffs. The only question would be how far a Giannis-Dame team can go, and whether they can bring home a championship for the first time in 43 years.
