Gravity of the New Orleans Pelicans advancing past the play-in tournament extends far beyond The Big Easy. Thousands of miles away, reverberations of their stunning rise from 1-12 bottom-feeder to thorny playoff upstart—with the chance to take a 2-1 first-round lead on basketball's best team—will be felt throughout what was supposed to be a transformative offseason for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Make no mistake: Losing that extra lottery pick as a result of the Pelicans making the playoffs hasn't changed Portland's big-picture approach. The Blazers' goal remains adding multiple impact players to their core this summer in hopes of quickly leveling back up in the Western Conference next season. A league-long run of eight consecutive playoff berths is over due in large part to shameless post-All-Star tanking, but Portland's plan all along was to get back to the postseason in 2022-23.
That could happen almost irrespective of the moves interim general manager Joe Cronin and company make this summer.
Damian Lillard, fully healthy for the first time in years after undergoing surgery on his midsection, expects to be better than ever next season, re-staking his claim as a top-10 player in the world. Anfernee Simons' meteoric rise isn't finished. Jusuf Nurkic remained his team's defensive bellwether in 2021-22 and came alive offensively once Lillard was sidelined for good. Josh Hart, Nassir Little and Justus Winslow boast the size, athleticism and all-court versatility to thrive under Chauncey Billups.
But just making the playoffs isn't a measuring stick for the Blazers like it is New Orleans. Playing deep into spring will be this new-look team's immediate objective as long as Lillard remains in tow, one much more difficult to imagine coming to fruition next season after C.J. McCollum and the Pelicans won the play-in.
Friday was a bad, bad night for the Trail Blazers #RipCityhttps://t.co/Uk9nk0HbAX
— Blazers Nation (@BlazersNationCP) April 16, 2022
Just because Portland is desperate to improve Lillard's supporting cast, though, apparently doesn't mean the front office will readily overpay to do it.
According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, the Blazers, owning the league's sixth-best lottery odds, “have no desire” to offer their own first-round pick to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for long-rumored trade acquisition Jerami Grant.
Early indications are that the Blazers have no desire to sacrifice their own selection, currently slated as the No. 6 pick, in trade conversations for Grant.
Phew.
Grant is a very valuable player, the type of long, flexible wing who can take on primary defensive assignments and loom as a help defender while scoring from all three levels on the other side of the ball. He'd be the best combo forward Lillard has played with during the latter's near-decade tenure in Portland, and it wouldn't be particularly close.
But that's more an indictment of the Blazers' long-term personnel failures than an endorsement of Grant's game. He's not the final piece for a team as far away from realistic contention as Portland, nor the type of truly game-changing presence who's worth a mid-lottery pick—especially considering the onerous cost of the four-year, $112 million extension Grant is up for this summer.
It's not like the Blazers will just sit on their hands and use by far their most valuable team-building asset on a rookie as Lillard enters his late prime, though. What players who could potentially become available would be worth that price? A quick glance across the league landscape leaves you scratching your head.
Maybe Rudy Gobert will soon be on the move as the Utah Jazz crumble, but his addition would complicate the otherwise imminent re-signing of Nurkic. The same goes for Myles Turner. Pascal Siakam is a more dynamic version of Grant's player archetype, though might have re-entrenched himself with the Toronto Raptors after an impressive second half of the regular season.
Would Portland kick the tires on a trade for Julius Randle, also demanding a young player like Quentin Grimes from the New York Knicks to part with a lottery pick? It speaks to the Blazers' dire straits that bringing in a player like Randle, coming off an extremely disappointing campaign with a four-year, $117 million extension set to kick in next season, is even worth a passing mention.
*Click HERE to learn more about Portland's offseason on this week's episode of Talking Trail Blazers*
Portland is bound to be much better next season. Billups' playing vision came into focus immediately after the trade deadline, when the revamped Blazers romped to the All-Star break with four straight quality wins despite Lillard's absence.
That blueprint for success isn't enough for Portland, though. It must be implemented behind a much-improved roster, too, and it won't be easy for the Blazers to get one.
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