Matt George Moore
I like to think of myself as a realist when it comes to evaluating the Portland Trail Blazers actions – or relative inaction, as the case may be – at the trade deadline.
As we all know, Blazers general manager Neil Olshey and his front-office cohorts traded Noah Vonleh and cash to the Chicago Bulls for the rights to someone named Milovan Rakovic.
It was a decidedly unsexy but nevertheless financially prudent move on Olshey’s part. The maneuver will save Portland about $4 million in tax payments. (The inclusion of Rakovic in the deal was designed to follow the letter of the NBA’s trade rules, which stipulate that the Bulls send something to the Trail Blazers. Portland sent cash; the Bulls send the rights to Rakovic, who will never play for the Trail Blazers.)
So what do I wish had happened, instead?
I’m at a bit of a loss when it comes to this question, because it seems to me that there wasn’t all that much the Blazers front office could do.
I mean, haven’t we been lectured time and time again that the Blazers’ hands are tied because Olshey the Nincompoop overpaid a bunch of underperforming players during the historically and statistically outlying 2016 free agent signing season?
Haven’t we been told that the Trail Blazers are gonna bang their heads against the salary cap ceiling until those overpaid underperformers – Meyers Leonard, Evan Turner and Moe Harkless – are no longer under contract?
So … what could the Trail Blazers have done? Olshey made it clear that Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were not available. He said the same thing about rookie Zach Collins, who apparently was a person of interest to other NBA teams. How do you get someone like DeAndre Jordan if you’re unwilling to part with any of those players?
Moving expiring contracts
Still, with the franchise’s contractual, financial and philosophical limitations in mind, I think I would have understood a trade involving Ed Davis and Shabazz Napier.
I like both these players. Davis is an old-soul baller, limited on offense, but always close to the basket grabbing rebounds and scoring on putbacks. Napier is a fine backup point guard, just the kind of player that teams like the Trail Blazers need to eat up some productive minutes and help close out games in crunch time.
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But both Davis and Napier will be free agents after this season. It seems likely the Blazers could have scored a second-round pick in exchange for at least one of them.
Will the Trail Blazers be able to re-sign them come the offseason? Or will they lose both and get nothing in return?
Given the current state of the Trail Blazers financials, I think I would have liked to see Portland get something for Davis and/or Napier, instead of watching them sign with other teams this offseason.