Portland Trail Blazers Receive: G/F Ben Simmons

Philadelphia 76ers Receive: G CJ McCollum

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.

Adding Ben Simmons to their team not only gives Lillard another All-Star talent to play with, but Simmons would make Portland so much better on the defensive-end of the court. Robert Covington is a really solid defender in his own right, so having these two lead the Blazers on the defensive-end of the court could be highly beneficial. 

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. 

READ MORE: Predictions for Latest NBA Trade Rumors: Lillard, LaVine, Simmons, Sexton

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