Portland Trail Blazers Receive: G/F Ben Simmons
Philadelphia 76ers Receive: G CJ McCollum
This is it… this is the full trade! Ben Simmons for CJ McCollum is a simple enough trade where it might just work out for both teams. All the talk to this point for Portland has been about the future of Damain Lillard, but they would definitely much rather trade McCollum instead of Lillard.
Their backcourt and firepower on offense has been the main strength of the Portland Trail Blazers over the years, but defensively, they are a mess. During the 2020-21 season, Portland ranked 23rd in the league in opponents points per game and they allowed their opponents to shoot 47.3% from the floor, the 6th worst in the league in terms of defensive production.
Not to mention, the Trail Blazers also ranked 29th in the league in defensive rating, ranking them as one of the worst all-around defensive teams in the league. How they approach fixing that will be something to watch in rumors this NBA offseason given how those results are unacceptable for a contender.
They can be great all they want on offense but at the end of the day, if they do not defend at a high-level, any team in this league will be able to score against them with ease. Finding ways to improve defensively is a must for the Trail Blazers this offseason, which is why they could look to pursue Ben Simmons.
READ MORE: Predictions for NBA Trade Rumors: Beal, Lillard, McCollum, Porzingis & Siakam
On the other side of things, the Philadelphia 76ers desperately need more scoring, especially since Simmons is a non-factor on the offensive-end of the floor. During the regular season, he averaged 14.3 points per game, but in the postseason, he averaged just 11.9 points per game.
Not being able to knock down shots or be aggressive and scoring at the rim has been detrimental to the Sixers’ offense over the years, which is why leveraging him for a guy like CJ McCollum could be smart for the 76ers. Defensively, they are a strong team to begin with, so adding McCollum gives them that extra bit of offense they would need next to Embiid and Harris to be a true title threat.
Defense for offense and offense for defense is the focus of this trade, which is why a straight up swap of these two players is definitely not too crazy to think about. However, is this a trade that both teams would be interested in and something that makes sense for both the 76ers and Blazers?
