Though the basketball world is still in the midst of a heated 2025 NBA Playoffs run, May is passing with June and July just around the corner. That can mean only one thing: trade and free agency season is on the way.

Questions to the Blazer’s Edge Mailbag are starting to reflect that reality. Today let’s deal with one of them, a query about a sharpshooting Boston Celtics forward.

Hi Dave,

Should the Blazers pursue Sam Hauser? Is there a deal that would work for both Portland And Boston?

Thanks.

Best regards,

Andy

Your instincts are good. Hauser ticks off several boxes that would make him a middle-of-the-bell-curve acquisition for Portland. He’s 27. He’s got good height for a small forward, which is likely where the Blazers would play him in a normal lineup. He can switch to power forward in a small-ball shift though. He shot 41.6% from the three-point arc last season, which was his career low. (Hint: That obliterates most NBA players, including any Portland player in the regular rotation.) He’s a comfortable bench player. He could start under the right circumstances, but nobody’s under the illusion that Hauser is a star in waiting. He’s going to give you everything he can for the minutes he plays but he’s not going to create—or worsen—a logjam at his position.

Hauser isn’t known as a great defender. He uses his feet and his brain, but his athleticism isn’t premier. His three-point shooting comes with an asterisk: that’s literally all he does. Hauser took an incredible 84% of his shots beyond the arc last year. Again, if you’re looking for a star scorer, look elsewhere. Hauser is going to hit shots to spread the floor as well as anybody in the league. That’s his job description.

But hey, this is a role the Blazers don’t have covered. Hauser wouldn’t be a bad pick-up. Two problems are getting in the way.

First, Hauser and the Celtics are in the wrong moment in their relationship to make a trade likely. Ideally the Blazers would make a move before a player signs an extension or a year or two afterwards when the team has tired of the guy. Hauser and Boston just agreed to a four-year deal. They went out of their way to re-sign him. That indicates that they like him…that they’re at the peak of liking him. The cost to pry him away is likely to be higher at this time than at any other. Hauser is a good fit, but would he really justify a major play to get him?

What that play might look like is the other issue. Hauser is going to help the Blazers, not revolutionize them. Minor pieces probably wouldn’t be enough to get him, but he’s not worth a major piece. Nor is Boston in position to take on more salary even if the Blazers were inclined. With the extension in force, Hauser is scheduled to make $10 million next year. Matisse Thybulle, Scoot Henderson, and Shaedon Sharpe are the only Portland players close, contract-wise. Thybulle wouldn’t be enough to get Hauser unless Boston was looking to get out of the contract they just signed. Sharpe and Henderson are obvious overpays.

That leaves us looking at larger deals in which Hauser is a side piece. That’s certainly possible, but a trade directly with Boston for those purposes seems unlikely. They’re a championship team, looking to win now, with a perfect set of role players around a pair of stars, all of whom focus on three-point shooting and defense. The Blazers don’t have win-now veterans to trade. Nor do they have three-point shooters. Portland prizes their own defenders and, aside from Thybulle, would balk at trading them for a player of Hauser’s caliber. It’s hard to find a match between the teams that makes sense.

Here’s the permutation I could see working. Portland trades Thybulle and a draft pick. Boston gets to shed a little salary for the future while picking up a young player in the draft. The sticking point is the same here, though. Second-rounders probably won’t do it, but first-rounders—particularly those Portland controls—are too valuable to trade for Hauser alone.

For those reasons, I’d see a Hauser trade as moderately desirable but also unlikely. It’s the basketball version of being compatible with someone, but they’re dating someone else right now. Watch for things to change in a year or two, though, and keep Hauser on your radar. Shooters tend to last a long time in the NBA but teams rarely marry them. This could be a down-the-road dalliance for Portland even if it doesn’t work right now.

Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer as many as we can!