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
|
Now that my mini-lecture is over and the rules to consider before presenting trades, we can start.
My “realistic” trade scenario
Part 1: Pay off Debt
The first idea is to send the pick that the Portland Trail Blazers acquired in the Josh Hart trade from New York (23rd overall) to the Chicago Bulls, to gain back its future pick owed to Chicago. That opens up all future 1st-round pick options to use in potential trades.
Part 2: Trading future picks, starting with a three-team trade
The Portland Blazers send Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic to Phoenix Suns for Deandre Ayton and Cameron Payne.
Phoenix gets Jusuf Nurkic to take over at starting center and Anfernee Simons to either immediately be Chris Paul‘s replacement, or create valuable depth on a team lacking it.
It’s an overpay for Ayton, but the difference between Ayton and Nurkic is Ayton was the starting center on a finals team in 2021, the team with the best record in all of basketball in 2022. He’s still only 24 years old. A roll of the dice on his potential with a new coach and teammates would be worth it.
Portland then sends their 2023 first round pick (3rd overall), a 2025 first round pick, Cameron Payne, Nassir Little, and Keon Johnson, to the Toronto Raptors for OG Anunoby.
The Raptors fill in some of their potential loss of depth if Van Fleet and Trent Jr. walk. With young players and picks, they can build their timeline around Scottie Barnes and the #3 pick.
It’s also an overpay for Anunoby. But adding his defensive impact to the Portland Trai Blazers starting squad of Damian Lillard, Sharpe, Jerami Grant, and Ayton would completely change their team’s defensive abilities overnight while also adding some pop to the offense.
Best of all, the Portland Trail Blazers keep most of its future draft capital for deals down the road.