Portland Trail Blazers looking at big trade for Eastern Conference forward
The Jerami Grant to the Portland Trail Blazers rumors are heating up again. What the Blazers can do to bring Grant to Rip City.
Recently rumors kicked back up about the Portland Trail Blazers‘ interest in trading for Jerami Grant. If he is on their radar, what should Interim General Manager Joe Cronin give up for the talented Detroit forward? Also, how they can best use their draft assets to make a deal happen.
What the Portland Trail Blazers should offer for Jerami Grant
It recently came out that Portland offered a package to Detroit around the March trade deadline for Grant that included Josh Hart and draft compensation. As good of a player as Josh Hart is, parting with him, if necessary, to obtain Grant is more than an acceptable loss. Having a solid guard off the bench, like Hart, is an expensive luxury for Portland, especially when they don’t have their starting positions filled.
Moving on to the pending offseason, there are several scenarios where Portland could obtain Grant. The most popular one floated around is Portland packaging the first round pick they acquired from New Orleans (Top-five protected, if the pick lands between 5-14, it goes to Portland), along with their $20.8M trade exception (obtained when the Blazers dealt CJ McCollum). This is probably the most straightforward trade, though it hinges on Portland actually having the Pelican’s pick.
Another option for Portland is they could use the Pelicans pick, package it with Eric Bledsoe‘s $18.1M contract, along with Keon Johnson for Grant. Detroit could then either cut Bledsoe and save $15M or use Bledsoe’s expiring contract in another trade.
There are other more convoluted options, such as three-team trades, but for now, the simplest ones work.