Portland Trail Blazers Receive: F Gordon Hayward, BOS 2024 2nd Round Pick (via CHA), CHA 2026 2nd Round Pick
Charlotte Hornets Receive: G Eric Bledsoe, F Josh Hart, POR 2023 1st Round Pick (Top-5 Protected)
In order for Charlotte to give up Gordon Hayward, two things will need to happen.
The first is that the Hornets will have to re-sign Miles Bridges to a new long-term, high-paying contract, resulting in Hayward’s value to Charlotte decreasing slightly.
The second is that the Hornets will need to receive a handful of value in return for Gordon Hayward that helps them maintain their spot as a contender for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Eric Bledsoe and Josh Hart can certainly do that for Charlotte and while Bledsoe has bounced around the league quite a bit in the past few seasons, he is still an experienced guard that could thrive as a backup for LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier on the Hornets.
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Josh Hart is a very interesting player to consider in an offseason trade not only because of his contract, but because Portland may look to leverage him in a trade similar to this proposed one in order to land another key high-level talent.
Between being an above-average rebounder and being a scorer at either forward position, Josh Hart could easily replace Gordon Hayward in the Hornets’ rotation while also helping them become younger as a team.
For Portland, giving up a first-round pick may not seem like the smart thing to do right now given their “rebuild” situation, but Gordon Hayward paired with Anfernee Simons and Damian Lillard makes for a very intriguing scenario.
If the Trail Blazers were to bring back Jusuf Nurkic as well, this team would suddenly be trending upwards, especially with Nassir Little and Justise Winslow being on their bench as well.
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Portland would surely have to try and round out their bench with experienced talent in free agency, but trading for Gordon Hayward could really escalate their rebuilding efforts in the offseason.