Does this trade make sense for the Portland Trail Blazers?

In no way should Portland look to trade Damian Lillard before trying to move Jusuf Nurkic, Robert Covington, CJ McCollum, and Norman Powell for more value, but should he request out at some point, this trade with the New York Knicks is highly favorable to the Portland Trail Blazers. 

R.J. Barrett is a potential All-Star in the making, Obi Toppin is more than capable of being a starting power forward right now and both Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier are two veterans who would round out the Trail Blazers’ rotations. 

Assuming they make this trade and keep Nurkic, Powell, and McCollum, the Blazers would have a starting group of McCollum, Barrett, Powell, Toppin, and Nurkic and still have loads of talent in their second unit with Walker, Fournier, Nance Jr., Little, and Simons. 

That is an extremely deep team and one that has a ton of future value as well. R.J. Barrett, Obi Toppin, Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little are all under 23-years-old and all four players have a ton of potential moving forward, creating one of the best looking young cores in the entire league. 

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Having four total draft picks in 2022 now, two in the first round and two in the second round, the Portland Trail Blazers would be able to add even more future value to their roster and without even having to rebuild, they would turn themselves into one of the best looking teams moving forward in the Western Conference. 

Portland would not need anything else other than what they get in that trade, which is why it is definitely a favorable deal for them. Overall though, they do not need to get rid of Damian Lillard this season and have said that he is not going anywhere, so we should not anticipate them making a trade like this.