Portland Trail Blazers: Would you trade CJ McCollum for Jimmy Butler?

Trading C.J. McCollum for Jimmy Butler

From the Wolves perspective, gaining CJ McCollum for Butler would certainly be something.

Not to mention, McCollum is on contract through the 2020-21 season, adding more stability to their team.

Of course, losing McCollum would be a heavy hit to the Trail Blazers chemistry as it’s obvious that he and Lillard like playing with each other and push one another to improve on both sides of the ball.

But the opportunity of gaining Butler may outweigh this cost.

Last season, McCollum averaged 21.4 points, 3.4 assists, and four rebounds. Butler averaged 22.2 points, 4.9 assists, and 5.3 rebounds.

McCollum is the better outside shooter (39.7 percent), and he provides tons of space alongside Al-Farouq Aminu and Maurice Harkless for Lillard to create and to allow the Blazers to play Jusuf Nurkic down low.

However, Butler can still hold his own from beyond the arc (35.0 percent).

And unlike McCollum, Butler is a premier defender in the NBA. While Butler’s inclusion in the starting lineup may make little difference overall, his total improved impact will be felt is when Lillard goes to the bench.

The Trail Blazers like to play McCollum with the bench unit to maintain a dynamic scorer on the floor at all times. Butler is still as dynamic on offense, but his better defense will help even more to stabilize these minutes, especially now that Ed Davis is in Brooklyn and Seth Curry is replacing Shabazz Napier.

Without an extra rim protector in Davis, these new bench units may leak points, even with McCollum on the floor. Butler would help mitigate this problem as he could lockdown any sixth man.

This all means that the Wolves would be losing their defensive anchor, which could be a heavy blow to a team that’s struggled without him.

However, Karl-Anthony Towns has been quietly improving as a help defender and shot blocker with his incredible length and mobility. While he struggled throughout his first season on this end of the ball, we saw him get better this year, and he may take a leap in the upcoming year.

Swingman Andrew Wiggins has shown little determination on defense throughout his career despite having all the physical tools to be a strong defender. For the most part, he’s been more interested in scoring. But there’s still plenty of hope that the 23-year-old will adopt a different mentality and will begin using all of his natural tools.

Plus, there’s something to be said for each of these players being under the direction of Thibs who has been touted as being a defensive-minded coach, although it hasn’t been shown these last couple seasons.

The Wolves could certainly find themselves buying into their core’s ability to improve defensively and figure it makes sense to add a lights-out scorer in McCollum to keep the offensive rolling. Especially if word gets out that Minnesota is shopping Butler and McCollum becomes the best offer on the table.