Portland Trail Blazers Receive: Domantas Sabonis, Aaron Holiday
Indiana Pacers Receive: Robert Covington, Anfernee Simons, Nassir Little, 2022 1st Round Pick, 2024 1st Round Pick
Domantas Sabonis continues to improve year by year but it may be time for the Pacers to make a long-term decision about moving on from one of their centers. He is now a proven big man and a good one at that. This is something that Portland would like to add immediately. Aaron Holiday would also be on his way to the Trail Blazers if they still were to have it.
In return, Indiana would get some first-round draft capital in the future. Two picks, along with Robert Covington and Anfernee Simons, would be on their way to Indiana. This all depends which direction the front office decides to move the team.
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There are some financial implications that are involved from the Pacers’ perspective when it comes to this trade scenario. Indiana is essentially locked into their current team and that’s a real problem when considering they are a fringe playoff team who is bound to get bounced in the first round no matter what. Moving on from a larger contract could be quite necessary.
The Trail Blazers will need to be creative with how they add talent around Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. It will not get done in free agency and that has been seen in recent years. This scenario would be an option for Portland to make another upgrade to their core, especially with Jusuf Nurkic entering the final year of his current contract in 2021-22.
Let’s take a closer look and see how this NBA offseason trade scenario centered around Domantas Sabonis would benefit both the Indiana Pacers and Portland Trail Blazers.