How This Trade Impacts Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are going to do everything in their power to not have to trade Damian Lillard. They will leave no stone unturned when it comes to upgrading the roster to help get Lillard closer to contending for a title.

Unless he asks for a trade, which he has not yet done, the Blazers are unlikely to trade him. If it does eventually come to that and Lillard is on the move, Portland would likely be looking for more than this in return.

They want to remain as competitive as possible, so taking back a currently injured point guard in Jamal Murray would be a hard sell. Murray is a solid player and at 24-years old still has time to develop his game. But Portland could probably do better than him as the centerpiece of a deal, especially if they aren’t getting back high-level prospects or multiple draft picks.

Zeke Nnaji and Nah’Shon ‘Bones’ Hyland haven’t been regular parts of the team’s rotation yet in the early part of their careers, so it is hard to tell how much upside they have. Only receiving one future first-round pick for the face of their franchise likely wouldn’t cut it, either.

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For how much Denver would like to do this trade, Portland would be on the opposite side of the spectrum. The Trail Blazers trading Lillard is hard to imagine, but doing it for this package is even tougher to envision occurring.