The Portland Trail Blazers are going to have one of the more interesting trade deadlines in all of the NBA. They have made it known that they are potentially going into a rebuilding process so many of their current players are not going to be in Portland for much longer.
They could decide to do this rebuild process in a few different ways, but they do have some star players and some other guys who could get a big return. This can help them speed up the rebuild process and potentially even keep a guy like Damian Lillard if they can get other guys around him.
Portland has made it clear that if they are going to go in a rebuild process, they want draft picks back. It's unclear if that is definitely what they're going to do. Some of the guys that they might look to trade could certainly bring back a few first-round draft picks and even some seconds on top of that.
It has been shown that something needs to change in Portland because they just aren't good enough to compete in the Western Conference against teams like the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, or the Los Angeles Lakers Whether they decide to keep Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, or others, it's going to be a big trade deadline in Portland. Many players who we have seen succeed for them in the past few seasons will no longer be with the organization. Let's take a look at three players the Blazers must trade at the NBA Trade Deadline.
3 Players The Blazers Must Trade
3. CJ McCollum
CJ McCollum has found a lot of success in his time in Portland. He's not necessarily a bad player but he's not really that second option who can be paired next to a guard. Perhaps if he was paired next to somebody like Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic, he could be the second option of a championship team. He has had some success in the past few seasons, especially last year before he was injured where he finished the season with 23.1 points per game, which was the best of his entire career.
Unfortunately, just like every other year, he failed to play well in the playoffs. This has been the case for this Blazers team for the better half of the past five seasons. They always play good enough to get them into a playoff position, and then they do not play anywhere near their capability. It seems as if the only person who steps up is Damian Lillard while the rest of them kind of just watches him do his thing. McCollum is too good of a player to allow this to happen and he definitely needs to be held accountable. He's clearly not the answer to be paired next to Lillard and if Portland is going to decide to keep Lillard, McCollum has to go.
Ben Simmons could be the perfect fit in Portland because he can run the point guard position and he's a high-level defender so if it is just a one-for-one player trade, it might not be a bad decision.
Contending teams are going to be all over him because when you have a guy who can defend from the 1-5 positions while shooting the three-point shot at an above-average rate, teams see a bunch of value in him. He doesn't necessarily have the value of getting a bunch of draft picks back due to his age, but he might be able to get a few second-round picks or potentially a first-round pick if a team has extra laying around.
Covington is essentially everything that you would want from a role player because he defends at the highest of levels while shooting the three-point shot at an above-average rate. He's not somebody that Portland will want to give up, but he could get a decent return and they might decide to get rid of him due to his age. It would make sense if they decide to do so because many teams are going to be looking to acquire the talented forward.
Jusuf Nurkic is a great player but he has the inability to stay healthy at times and it's a major concern. If he was able to be healthy, it would make sense that the Blazers decide to keep him because he is the perfect center and he's not necessarily that old. Nurkic is only 27 years old so if he was staying healthy, he could still be somebody who could stay there and be a part of the rebuild process. Since he does have questions about his health, it would make the most sense if Portland decided to get rid of him because he could also get back a potential first-round pick or even some younger players from a contending team who needs help at the center position.
Portland needs to make some decisions coming up. Do they want to keep Lillard or go into a heavy rebuild? There is certainly enough talent to bring other guys into Portland via trades. They will have some big decisions to make in the next few months and it will certainly be interesting to see what they do.
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