Does this trade make sense for the Portland Trail Blazers?

The Portland Trail Blazers have been awful this season and with Damian Lillard out indefinitely, plus the fact that the Blazers just lost by 17 points on the road to the Thunder, it is time to commit to rebuilding. 

Interim GM Joe Cronin is looking to have the “interim” tag removed from his name moving forward and the only way to do so is to begin building the team in his image in order to get back to being a real contending threat in the Western Conference. 

They do not need to do a complete rebuild, but Portland can salvage a lot of value from this season by potentially leveraging Robert Covington, Jusuf Nurkic and even Norman Powell. 

Their backcourt trio of Lillard, McCollum and Simons makes up one of the best backcourts in the league, but the rest of Portland’s roster is just weak overall. Covington and Nurkic are both set to be unrestricted free agents in the offseason, so getting value and possibly future first-round picks for them now makes the most sense, especially since the Trail Blazers could simply try to re-sign Nurkic/Covington in free agency. 

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Dario Saric may not prove much use to the Trail Blazers immediate future, but Jalen Smith could be someone Portland looks to utilize long-term in their frontcourt. His third-year team option was declined by Phoenix before the season, so should things not work out in Portland, he would become a free agent and open up just under $5M in cap space. 

Ultimately, the Portland Trail Blazers get cap space and a future first-round pick in 2024 from this trade, making it worthwhile long-term.