The Portland Trail Blazers Should Consider Trading with the Atlanta Hawks

What do the Hawks want?

Because the Hawks’ core pieces in John Collins and Trae Young are still years from propelling a team to meaningful basketball in March and April, Atlanta is looking for assets that will pay dividends down the line. Draft picks, future cap space, and prospects will be at a premium.

The Blazers own their first round picks through 2025. They do not own this year’s second round pick, but have all their picks beyond this so long as their 2020 pick does not land between 56-60.

Portland cannot offer much in the way of players on expiring deals to open up cap space for Atlanta. Their most interesting options are Aminu, Curry, and Layman.

As far as prospects, the Blazers most realistic option is likely Caleb Swanigan. Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent, Jr. are still too young to sell on, while Collins appears to be in Portland’s future plans.

One possible trade:

In my trade idea, the Blazers send Aminu, Curry, Swanigan, and their 2019 first round pick to the Hawks for Taurean Prince and Dewayne Dedmon.

Swanigan, 21, is an interesting big man that could use some of Dedmon’s 24.7 minutes per game to develop in a no-pressure environment. He has two years left on a rookie deal while Dedmon’s contract expires after this year.

The first round pick swaps for Prince, giving Atlanta another selection – on top of the five picks they’ve already stashed away – in this year’s draft. They may hope to find a piece that fits better than Prince outside of the lottery.

With Aminu and Curry, the Blazers allow the Hawks to take chances on each player and potentially re-sign them in the summer. Being 28- and 27-years-old respectively, they do not fit within the Hawks timeline. However, Aminu could act a reasonably priced anchor during the Hawks’ transition period, while Curry could act as an affordable alternative to Atlanta’s current backup point guard, Jeremy Lin – who they are interested in dealing.

The Hawks will undoubtedly be aggressive sellers as the trade deadline approaches. Will the Trail Blazers be buyers?