Portland Trail Blazers: The elephant in the room when talking trades.
The Portland Trail Blazers have decisions to make coming up to the NBA's February 9 trade deadline. Evaluating the roster ahead of Deadline Day.
Not enough info
At this point, the Portland Trail Blazers are still evaluating the youngsters like Keon Johnson, Jabari Walker, Trendon Watford, etc. This collection of second round picks and undrafted players, have already been a bigger part of the rotation than most fans ever thought they’d be.
Their effort since arriving in Rip City has been more than admirable. Further development will give Portland a better idea of how any of them fit in the long term.
The elephant in the room
A measure of patience needs to be given to this team. Knee-jerk reactions can sometimes lead to horrible outcomes that ruin franchises for years. However that patience is not infinite, it has an expiration date.
Lillard likely does not have many years left of playing at a high level. Despite his current talk of loyalty to the Portland Trail Blazers franchise, losing can wear out a player if they don’t feel like that franchise is improving.
Current analysis should not only be aimed at the makeup of the roster but also the coaching staff and management.
If the front office is about to give big money to Jerami Grant (which they should), how does they defend having multiple big contracts (Grant, Simons, Lillard) for a sub-.500 team that can’t play defense?
How does an Owner view that kind of spending for a non-contending team?
These are questions that need to be answered before the dealing begins.