Does this trade make sense for the Portland Trail Blazers?

Moving Damian Lillard results in Portland becoming a rebuilding franchise with the belief that they would be taking themselves out of the playoff picture, but hold on just a minute! This is a grand return they would get from both the 76ers and Grizzlies for Lillard not just in terms of future talents, but guys that can contribute immediately upon arrival to Portland. 

Dillon Brooks, Matisse Thybulle, and Jaren Jackson Jr. are all key talents who can contribute for this team immediately and both De’Anthony Melton and Jaden Springer are two young guards for the Trail Blazers to develop and build with for the future.

Not to mention, Portland would be getting two unprotected first-round picks in 2022 and 2027, plus two first-round swaps in 2024 and 2026 from Philadelphia. They would probably prefer 2026 to be unprotected and the 2027 first-round pick to be a swap, but nonetheless, this is still a ton of draft value for a team with draft capital moving forward. 

With C.J. McCollum at the helm of everything with guys like Robert Covington, Norman Powell, Jusef Nurkic, Jaren Jackson Jr., Dillon Brooks, and Matisse Thybulle around him, the Trail Blazers would actually be a decent looking team with a lot of solid, contributing players on their roster.

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Now, they probably would not be anything more than the 6-seed in the Western Conference, but in time, this team could definitely turn out to be special. 

At some point, Neil Olshey and the Portland Trail Blazers’ front-office are going to have to consider all of their options and the fact that Damian Lillard is probably going to request a trade soon.

If they cannot add another All-Star-level talent to their roster to appease him, moving Lillard while his value is at its highest is definitely not crazy, especially if this is the return they can get for him right now.