Norman Powell, Portland Trail Blazers.
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.
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.
A few days after the Covington trade, Portland made a move to acquire some inside help. They not only jettisoned the contract of Mario Hezonja, but they also brought back a solid player that played a big role in helping the Blazers reach the 2019 Western Conference Finals. In a 3-way trade that saw Memphis obtain the 30th pick from Bostom and Mario Hezonja from Portland, the Blazers brought back their old friend Enes Kanter.
Kanter wound up not just being a solid backup center spot but he helped keep the team afloat while Jusuf Nurkic nursed a broken wrist. He averaged 11.2 points and 11 rebounds per game, For most of the season, Kanter was Portlands’ only real offensive inside threat. During Nurk’s absence, Kanter was a leader in helping the team to a 19-13 record.
The only negative seemed to be that Kanter struggled more defensively than he did in his previous Rip City tour. Part of the problem was because he played with other poor post defenders when he came off the bench. Another reason for his defensive woes had to do with him playing with undersized forwards.
In 2019, his defensive liabilities were better disguised. Back then he had a healthy Zach Collins and Al-Farooq Aminu to take on tougher low post assignments. Even with him being exposed by league MVP Nikola Jokic (Which Jokic exposes A LOT of NBA players). I still give this trade an “A-” because Portland dealt a low-impact/negative-contract player in Hezonja and return a high-impact player that ended up being an effective starter for nearly half the season.
At the NBA trade deadline, the Portland Trail Blazers were frantically trying to upgrade the roster. After supposedly striking out on Aaron Gordon, the team sent a couple of backup wing players Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood to Toronto for swingman Norman Powell.
Powell, typically a shooting guard, was playing out of position for Toronto. The Raptors attempted to maximize their team’s potential. The 6-3 sharpshooter was averaging 19.6 points per game and was a solid defender when the trade took place.
Admittedly, losing Gary Trent Jr. hurt. His attitude and hot shooting were things the Portland Trail Blazers bench lacked until his arrival. As his value continued to rise, it became more and more obvious that retaining him after the season and forking up big money for another guard wasn’t something the team wanted to do.
One thing about signing a young player is that the team is kind of signing them based on potential. Trent already showed himself to be a solid player, but was his “potential” going to be worth that extra money for the Blazers? Norman Powells’ situation was a little different due to the fact he’s a known commodity.
Powell had more experience playing small forward than GTJ and wins every comparison you can think of between the two. No matter how incremental that difference is, this team needs every small improvement it can get. I think that this trade was meant to set up Powell as the team’s future shooting guard if CJ McCollum gets moved this summer. I gave this trade a B+ for now.
None of these trades made in the last 12 months are home runs. However, the team did get a few singles and a double out of them. In all practicality, these trades turned three bench players and a past his prime starter into arguably Portlands’ fourth through sixth-best players on the team (I have Carmelo just behind Kanter as the teams’ 7th best player). It will be interesting to see how this roster looks going into this next season.
How would you grade the Portland Trail Blazers from the last year? Add your comments below or on social media.