Portland Trail Blazers: What’s Next? Making Deals
The NBA Draft Lottery gave the Portland Trail Blazers some much-needed trade capital. Here's an idea of how they can take advantage of it.
Rob Ryan
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The NBA Draft Lottery gave the Portland Trail Blazers some much-needed trade capital. Here’s an idea of how they can take advantage of it.
With the NBA Draft lottery finally in the rearview mirror and the Portland Trail Blazers landing with the third overall pick, I’m gonna throw out a few wild ideas as to what Portland could and should do with that pick.
Before making any trade suggestions, let’s go over a few rules. Ones aside from NBA general managers aren’t suckers. Then we can move on to potential deals.
The Rules
Rule #1- Both teams must gain positional value in a trade
I see quite a few trade ideas where teams often send a player to a team that already has good talent at that position. An example would be trade ideas that send a player like Zach Lavine to Portland when the Blazers already have Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe battling for minutes at shooting guard.
Simons and Sharpe are also much cheaper options than Levine. Trade ideas like this make little sense.
Rule #2- Expect to outbid other teams’ offers
I often see Portland Trail Blazers trade ideas from fans that scheme the most “fair offer” possible. “Fair offers” go out the window when seeking a highly coveted, now-available player. The goal is no longer to provide the fairest offer, it becomes whether or not you can outbid all rival teams’ fair offers.
An example might be Mikal Bridges, for the #3 pick, which might sound fair on the surface to Portland Trail Blazers fans. If another team offers the Nets, say, the 4th pick, along with other assets… like two future 1st round picks.. that 3rd overall pick doesn’t look like the best offer presented anymore.
Other teams will be making bids for the same players Portland might be trying to nab. Those front offices, media, and fanbases are having the same conversations about their teams that are going in Rip City right now.
Portland has to not only contend with the value being sent back for whatever team they are trading with, but they need to one-up their opponents. The Blazers wouldn’t take back less value if more was offered. Why would we expect the opposite to happen?
Rule #3 – Realize that there is a reason a player is on the trading block
NBA fans often like to exaggerate the value and upside of a player when trying to pawn them off on another team. Some will even scoff at trading for a player who is now available from their current team due to a bad fit, a bad playoff series, or an expensive or risky expiring contract.
Players are available for a reason. Fans sound like used car salesmen when trying to sell you their overpriced player while simultaneously explaining to you why you’re player trade-in has low to zero value.
