indicated an openness<\/a> to buying into the second round, the Blazers\u2019 name was not spoken by Deputy NBA Commissioner Mark Tatum on the final night. While it would be foolish to read too much into Portland\u2019s absence, one would hope that it isn\u2019t a sign of things to come.<\/p>\nThe Blazers can\u2019t afford to be passive this summer. They need to be willing to deal and part with players and picks in order to keep up with the increasing talent pools across both conferences, not to mention the fact that their rebuild is well and truly over. The Blazers also need to be aware of Western Conference lottery teams that we know will be better, namely the Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n
On 30 June, the Blazers will be able to approach free agents with either the $15.0 million non-taxpayer or $6.1 million taxpayer Mid-Level exceptions as well as the $5.5 Bi-Annual Exception. They\u2019ll also have veteran minimums to help fill out the roster. But trade will be this roster\u2019s main avenue forward.<\/p>\n
Over the past four years, the Blazers have added a slew of young players who continue to develop and contribute on the court, to varying degrees. Scoot Henderson, Kris Murray, Donovan Clingan and Yang Hansen are all on rookie-scale deals while Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija are still young, edging closer to their respective primes.<\/p>\n
The Blazers will also add faux free agent Damian Lillard this season, giving the young squad an elite offensive shot in the arm while helping reduce the league worst 17.3 turnovers a game. Lillard alone will likely lift the team higher than the fourth-worst 34.3 percent three point shooting rate, as well.<\/p>\n
New Head Coach Micah Nori may also help in that development as he brings nearly three decades of experience to the franchise. But a coach, internal growth and Damian Lillard will only do so much. For this team to truly compete at the top of the Western Conference, more elite talent will need to find its way to the Moda Center.<\/p>\n
Parting with Valuable Pieces<\/p>\n
The Blazers are now flush with assets. They have all their own firsts as well as unprotected picks from the Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic and Boston Celtics. They also have valuable picks swaps from the Bucks in 2028 and 2030.<\/p>\n
They boast a nice cross section of salaries with Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant in the low $30 million annual range as well as attractive deals owned by key players in the mid-to-high teen million dollar range. These are complemented by that list of rookie-scale deals that could be of interest to teams across the league.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a solid position but the roster, as currently constructed, is light years from contention. This front office now needs to take calculated risks, parting with multiple pieces to get a difference maker in return.<\/p>\n
Some Blazers watchers appear to get overly attached to players the franchise drafts or brings in early in their story. This school of thought makes them unwilling to part with any player who shows glimpses of talent in Blazers colors.<\/p>\n
This mentality is not constructive.<\/p>\n
I too have labelled certain players untouchable in the past, but this flawed thinking may severely hinder this franchise getting to where it wants to be. Ultimately, while risky, the best way to truly help this team contend is to part with both picks and competent players who may have helped the Blazers in recent seasons.<\/p>\n
Donovan Clingan has recently been suggested in potential Portland trade packages for Boston\u2019s Jaylen Brown, who appears available following the Celtics failed attempt at Giannis Antetokounmpo. Over the past 12 months, the sophomore Clingan has established himself as an above-average NBA big, someone a franchise could be confident in calling its pivot of the future.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s this type of player that could help the Blazers land a difference maker like Brown. Boston\u2019s two-way 29-year-old earned MVP votes this past season, averaging 28.7 points on 34.7 percent from three, 47.7 percent from the field, 6.9 boards, 5.1 assists and 1.0 steals om 36.2 percent usage. Brown, who has three years left on his deal, almost single-handedly dragged the Celtics to a 56-26 record and a second seed in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n
Any team attempting to secure a player like this – a type that rarely becomes available – will have to put up picks and players ready to contribute now so that Jayson Tatum and his Celtics can compete through his prime. The Blazers have the picks but should consider including players like Clingan, a New England native who fills a real position of need for the Celtics. Adding Clingan may also result in the Blazers hypothetically only giving up three picks instead of four, which will help them in other deals.<\/p>\n
If including Clingan in the larger package convinces the Celtics to send Brown to Portland, the Blazers should do it, for one simple reason – MVP-level talent is much harder to acquire than an above-average center. Of course, the Blazers would need to find a new starting center but with Brown on board and other assets in the cupboard, they could go after another starting center while also retaining Robert Williams III.<\/p>\n
While I would never advise the Blazers to be reckless, they also can\u2019t be shy about improving this team as it sheds its re-building title. Trade partners rarely want players the incumbent team is content to part with, trade partners want the guys the incumbent loves.<\/p>\n
Without taking a calculated risk, this team will forever be playing in the shallow water, never giving themselves a chance to go deep into the NBA Playoffs. It may not work out but it\u2019s essential this front office to act after wasting Damian Lillard\u2019s prime, resting on laurels. Cronin needs to take a chance at a name that can help both Lillard and Deni Avdija take a real shot.<\/p>\n
If we get to training camp and the playing group is largely the same as last year, plus Lillard, I will be severely disappointed. The Blazers have the pieces to go and make a deal, they just need to be willing to take a swing and be willing to live with the results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Trail Blazers were the only NBA franchise not to add a player during this week\u2019s NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,37787,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":["post-772326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-blazers-analysis","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116824819817549468","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}