The Portland Trail Blazers have already begun reshuffling the roster around Damian Lillard by beginning the early stages of clearing the salary cap sheet. Ahead of the NBA trade deadline, they moved Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the LA Clippers.
The emergence of Anfernee Simons has opened up the ability for the Trail Blazers to clear some of the higher cost guards on their roster. It has been long expected that if Simons were to take the next step in his development, it could mean a trade involving CJ McCollum.
McCollum, who is set to earn $33.33M in 2022-23, accounts for a lot of salary cap spending. With Simons being due for a new contract in restricted free agency, Portland would be spending a fortune on guards.
The move to part with Powell clears room to pay Simons, but the Trail Blazers could stand to benefit from moving McCollum in order to add a few pieces to build around Lillard and Simons.
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There isn’t time for the Trail Blazers to waste if they seek to win at a high-level with Damian Lillard as the cornerstone. It can’t all be cap space that Portland creates out of a McCollum deal as the margin for error for a usually underwhelming free agency destination would be far too great.
If the Portland Trail Blazers do end up moving CJ McCollum ahead of the NBA trade deadline, these three teams need to make a real push to acquire him.
