Portland Trail Blazers: The Pipe Dream (That could happen)
While watching teams not named the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA Playoffs, why not dream about an immediate turnaround in Rip City?
5. Move Nurk to the bench
There has been quite the rumble from Portland Blazers fans complaining that Jusuf Nurkic is no longer good enough to be the team’s starting center. While that’s not a universal sentiment, the Rip City faithful won’t argue much about his coming off the bench.
Nurk instantaneously becomes a 6th-man like player for this team. He can feast on opposing teams’ backup centers while being the veteran presence on a Portland Trail Blazers bench unit likely to revolve around a re-signed Mattise Thybulle, Cam Reddish, and Nassir Little, along with developing youngsters Trendon Watford, Jabari Walker, Keon Johnson, and whoever the Blazers convince to sign with their mid-level exception.
In addition to a star-stacked starting five, Portland could supplement them with a solid rotation.
Final thoughts
Daydreaming about what could happen in the next few months was just a fun exercise. Obviously, landing the number one overall pick is the most unrealistic thing to happen in this scenario, but past that, the other four moves are very possible.
Trading for OG Anunoby might need to be a bigger overpay, but moving forward with a “Big 3” of Lillard, Anunoby, and Grant, all the while rounding it out with two 19-year-old future All-Stars in Webanyama and Sharpe, there is no way Portland Trail Blazers fans (and Lillard) couldn’t be excited about this team moving forward.
The odds of this scenario happening start with the 10.5% chance the Portland Trail Blazers have to win the NBA Draft Lottery on May 16.