Grading the last 12 months of Portland Trail Blazers trades
The 2021-22 NBA season is almost at an end. Before the new league year begins, we review and grade last season’s Portland Trail Blazers trades.
With the NBA Finals starting this week that means the NBA offseason, draft, and the opening of NBA free agency are around the corner. Trades and player signings will soon happen. With the Portland Trail Blazers‘ disappointing first-round exit, the team won’t stand pat. Looking back at last season, we review and grade the Blazers’ trades went down.
Robert Covington: B
On November 16, 2020, the Portland Trail Blazers kicked off their offseason moves by trading Trevor Ariza and a pair of first-round picks to the Houston Rockets for Robert Covington. My first thought on this move was that it was a clear upgrade as Portland got a player still in his prime who had been an effective 3-and-D player and former All-NBA Defensive First Team member.
Covington was forced to move small to power forward after Zach Collins re-injured his foot. A rough start to the season shooting-wise and only a slight improvement to the defense in the first half of the season led to early doubts that Portland made the right move by trading for Covington.
As the season progressed RoCo regained his shooting touch. Eventually, Jusuf Nurkic came back healthy and Norman Powell replaced Derrick Jones Jr. as the starting small forward. That’s when the team began to show life on the defensive side of the basketball.
That let Covington finally play more of the “disruptor” role defensively. A role that he previously had a reputation for. I give this trade a “B” simply because of RoCo’s slow start and him playing out of position at the start of the year.