Jerami Grant, Gary Payton II, Jusuf Nurkić, Anfernee Simons and Drew Eubanks meet the media on July 7.
The NBA draft is over, and the Portland Trail Blazers have made quite a few moves early in this free agency process. Let’s analyze how these moves will affect the team moving forward.
Right after the trade for Jerami Grant, plenty of online personalities talked about what a steal Portland got. A borderline All-Star level forward for the cost of a 2025 Milwaukie Bucks first round pick, a 2022 second round pick swap, and a pair of future second round picks.
What hasn’t been mentioned enough is how much Grant will help the team. Adding a forward who can impact both sides of the ball shouldn’t just help out Damian Lillard, but it will also help Jusuf Nurkic. Since he arrived in Portland, Nurkic hasn’t played next to a power forward who is an offensive threat like Grant is.
He should make it harder for teams to double down on the Portland Trail Blazers center. With Grant in the lineup, Nurk should have more chances to use his passing abilities.
Blazers fans remember how often Robert Covington missed close-range shots. Also, how Al Farouq Aminu never shot the ball well enough for opposing defenses to commit to guarding him. Jerami Grant fixes both of those past issues.
Before draft night, I wrote an article giving the Blazers a five percent chance of keeping their own pick. That was before the Grant trade. Once that deal went down, it gave Portland more flexibility and patience. General Manager Joe Cronin didn’t have to be as desperate to move the pick as he originally was.
All fans need to do is watch videos of Shaedon Sharpe to see the potential. Aside from youth, he doesn’t appear to have any obvious weaknesses. Sharpee can attack the basket, has a nice mid-range game, can shoot the long ball, and seems solid on defense.
The hype surrounding him reminded me of the hype around Damian Lillard when the Blazers drafted him in 2012. The difference is Portland was criticized for picking Lillard sixth when most pundits had him going late lottery. Before Sharpe missed his entire first season of college ball, some people had him projected as the top overall pick.
Extending Anfernee Simons was not a surprise move. The Blazers organization praised him for years due to his high ceiling. After Damian Lillard went down and Anfernee got the reigns of the team, he finally produced more than just flashes of that potential.
Four years, $100M is a good deal for a 23-year-old who played like an All-Star after the new year started. Simons’ improvement as a starter also gave the team confidence in moving CJ Mccollum for assets that would later become Jerami Grant. Portland’s hope here is Simons, who is more athletic than CJ, could develop into a better defender than his predecessor.
It’s a big opportunity for Simons, as it will be a test to see if he can strive as a starting shooting guard. If not, the Blazers might be looking at another situation like McCollum, a score-first point guard playing out of position.
Bringing Nurkic back wasn’t a surprise. Despite the wink-wink deal believed to be going on behind the scenes, with Nurkic heading to unrestricted free agency, it wasn’t as obvious that he would return. There was always the chance another team could have pulled him away with a big enough offer.
It was nerve-racking when the first day of free agency ended without Portland resigning him. The free agent market for centers had almost dried up. Losing him for nothing would have hurt the Blazers.
Also, a good chunk of Portland’s success over the last five years could easily be attributed to Nurkic’s presence on the court. His impact on defense and ability to get buckets in the paint made his return all the more important.
If anyone doubts what he brought to the team, look up the team’s +/- numbers when Nurk and Dame are on the floor together. It’s understandable to give Dame all the credit for that +/- ratio. However, that ratio drops significantly when Lillard played with any other center Portland used in the last seven years.
It was a pleasant surprise when the Portland Trail Blazers signed Gary Payton II. More than anything, Portland needed to improve perimeter defense and do it by using up the Mid-Level-Exception. But the second-generation NBAer takes his defensive responsibilities as seriously as his NBA father did.
Some of the players Portland should have gone after signed with other teams rather quickly. The ones not quickly signed seemed to have a certain level of health risk attached to them, such as T.J. Warren and Otto Porter Jr. However, it wouldn’t be a surprise if one of those players missed most of the next season with injury problems.
Payton had a break-out, impact season. His defense absolutely played a key role in the Golden State Warriors winning the 2022 championship.
Overpaying slightly to guarantee that kind of defensive player on the roster is a no-brainer. Adding Payton is like when the team overpaid for a young Wesley Matthews, who had only one season under his belt. The Matthews signing had a huge impact on improving the Blazers’ defense for the following seasons. Players like him are essential for any team hoping to have success.
Drew Eubanks seems like a safe re-signing for a player that is more of a third-string center. After being thrown into Portland’s dumpster fire of a tanking team, fans appreciated his work ethic. In spot minutes, Eubanks won’t hurt the team with poor decision-making or lack of effort.
Portland’s early moves were very solid, and the team has definitely improved. Whether or not that results in playoff success remains to be seen. Re-allocating talent and upgrading the starting power forward position, and allowing them to thrive will show an immediate impact. Not just for positional output but also how it takes pressure off of the guards and center to take on less pressure and be more impactful.
Monitoring the starting backcourt defensively might be the thing to watch early in the season. The log-jam at shooting guard becomes even more apparent if Sharpe looks NBA-ready. Should Sharpe be anywhere close to where rookie Lillard was, Portland Trail Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups won’t have him riding the pine.
Lillard/Simons pairing is the one to watch. If Simons starts showing similar issues that McCollum had, the Blazers can’t ignore it. At that point, Cronin will start gauging Simon’s trade value at upgrading the Small Forward spot.
Portland can’t go another five years with a starting backcourt that can’t defend. Using Simons or Dame to bring in a high-level talent at small forward while using Hart as a stop-gap starter until Sharpe takes over would potentially put together the highest upside starting five that this team has had maybe in decades.
Either way, expect one more move out of this team between now and next summer. Likely the move that determines whether Lillard will be a part of the team’s future.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.