As the Feb. 8 trade deadline approaches, the Trail Blazers aren’t making much noise. But that’s not stopping some writers from suggesting the impossible — or the just plain stupid.
Will the Portland Trail Blazers make a move before the NBA trade deadline?
It’s impossible to tell. The team doesn’t like to divulge its secrets. Or much of anything, really. And in true Portland Trail Blazers fashion, all we’ve gotten from the bigwigs within the franchise is radio silence.
That is, until Tuesday, when trade talk and rumors started to focus on Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. Then, suddenly, the Blazers’ front office silence was deafening.
Trail Blazers, Lillard and McCollum
As we wrote here at the RCP, the Trail Blazers are unwilling to part with Lillard or McCollum. According to ESPN writer Zach Lowe, “Some folks have pitched deals centered around C.J. McCollum. Portland continues to reject any inquires on McCollum and Damian Lillard, sources say.”
I’ve always been of the mind that McCollum is expendable. He’s a wonderful offensive player, of course, and he’s fun to watch. Basketball is a game of constant motion, and McCollum plays within the nooks and crannies of that ever-present motion. I’ve rarely seen a player so adept at finding open space for himself.
McCollum also sports a wide variety of shots: teardrops, running hooks, pull-up jumpers, spot-up threes, turnarounds, fadeaways, two-step fallaways. (Pretty sure I just made that last one up. But I’m also pretty sure I’ve seen McCollum do it.)
McCollum’s offensive game is a beautiful thing.
But he’s not exactly a defensive stopper, although he’s certainly had his moments. I’ve also rarely seen McCollum tussling with the big fellas inside to grab a rebound; he averages just 3.9 per game this season. Rather, his game exists within the spaces created by the movement of other players, in the thick of the action but also somehow detached from it.
McCollum would be a perfect fit for a team that doesn’t require him to take part in a hard-nosed defensive scheme and doesn’t need him to bang around the boards. It would also have to be a team that doesn’t need him to facilitate plays for teammates, since McCollum averages a mere 3.2 assists per game this season.
Noisy Noise From The Peanut Gallery
The Oregonian/OregonLive’s John Canzano posted a column Tuesday on the Trail Blazers’ “guts” (or lack thereof). Canzano suggests that the franchise’s unwillingness to part with either McCollum or Lillard is a mistake.
I’m all in on the possibility of a trade involving McCollum, even though the organization itself is clearly not. But Canzano thinks Lillard is just as expendable as McCollum. He argues that the duo are less Batman and Robin and more like “Robin and Robin.”
This seems incredibly shortsighted to me. Lillard is the heart and soul of the Trail Blazers. He has the ear of owner Paul Allen. And he says he wants to remain in Portland throughout his career — to be, in his own words, “the best Trail Blazer ever.”
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McCollum is a potential All-Star, but he is not Damian Lillard — not on the court and not in the hearts and minds of Rip City. Canzano shouldn’t suggest that they are equal in terms of trade bait.
But the “peanut gallery” is gonna peanut (I include myself here), and there will be a lot more rumors between now and the Thursday trade deadline. Some rumors will sound enticing; others will sound stupid.
But one thing seems perfectly clear: Lillard and McCollum ain’t going nowhere.