Does this trade make sense for the Portland Trail Blazers?
Not if, but when the time comes for the Trail Blazers to trade Damian Lillard, they are really going to have to take their time and figure out what the best return they can get for him is.
Obviously they will want to remain a somewhat contending team in the Western Conference and if C.J. McCollum is still on the team, adding Jamal Murray may not be a terrible idea.
These two together could be the next era of the Portland Trail Blazers’ backcourt and getting Zeke Nnaji and “Bones” Hyland in return, plus a future first-round pick allows the Blazers to continue finding ways to build for the future.
Portland is in a very awkward situation right now because it is no secret that their star player is frustrated and they really have not done much to improve their roster.
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With McCollum and Nurkic healthy to begin the season, the Blazers will be in a better spot than they were at the beginning of the 2020-21 season, but at the same time, none of the moves they made this offseason really affect the team in a positive way too much.
Larry Nance Jr. will prove to be a really strong addition to this team’s second-unit, but Cody Zeller, Tony Snell and Ben McLemore are nothing more than role players on the bench. Plus, the Blazers’ front-office giving Norman Powell a five-year, $90M contract ties down almost all their available funds to do anything in future offseasons.
The Trail Blazers are essentially locked into the roster they have right now, which is not a good sign for what the future holds for this team. If they underachieve again and fail to make it out of the first round of the playoffs, then Neil Olsehy and this front office may very well have to tear everything down and start over.
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This trade with Denver is not terrible in terms of value coming into Portland, but at the same time, there will be teams willing to offer up 2-3 young talents and a handful of draft picks for Damian Lillard.
If he becomes available in trade talks, we could realistically be seeing another Anthony Davis to the Lakers or James Harden to the Nets trade in terms of the amount of value in draft assets/young talents being traded.
