Portland Trail Blazers: The Road To Attrition and Redemption
The Blazers Right Move
The best option for Cronin and company to improve the team is with Atlanta. The Hawks have a roster crunch with too many good young players and only so many minutes. They also need to clear some payroll soon for a DeAndre Hunter extension.
The man Hunter is supplanting, John Collins, makes for the perfect addition to Portland’s roster. An athletic young big who can shoot and defend. He’s also locked in for three more years on a reasonable contract and brings some playoff experience with him. This year’s lottery pick, along with cap filler, should be able to get the deal done.
Nurkic, Collins, Little, Simons, and Lillard are a strong starting five. Next, they should call Charlotte and offer to take Gordon Hayward off their hands for Eric Bledsoe‘s expiring deal (they have a $10 million exception to make this deal work) and a future pick.
With Hayward, Hart, Winslow, Trendon Watford, and CJ Elleby on the bench, the team looks more and more like a playoff team. They would be a little small, and that’s where they should use their MLE on someone like Derrick Favors or Ivica Zubac.
This team probably isn’t title contenders in a brutal Western Conference, but they would be a playoff team. If things go just right or injuries hit other teams hard, they may even be able to make a run.
This blueprint is probably the only way to go if the team continues to be Dame-centric. While a total tear-down may have some appeal, as long as Joe Cronin has interim attached to his title, the middle ground is the most likely option.
Where do you think the Portland Trail Blazers go from here? Let us know in the comments section below.