Though there haven’t been any trades yet, the trade deadline isn’t far away. Which players should the Trail Blazers be looking at to improve their squad?
Though there has been a lack of activity so far this trade season, don’t take that as a sign that the trade market wont be active in the next six weeks. Like the Trail Blazers, there are a lot of playoff and fringe playoff teams that are looking to make moves to get over the top.
There aren’t as many bad contracts around the league in comparison to previous years, and next years free agent market is relatively weak. This means that teams won’t look to make moves at the deadline to be a cap space team over the summer.
Teams will look to swap players that don’t fit their current roster, or in the case of a team like the New Orleans Pelicans, will look to make trades if their season hasn’t gone to plan and they have veterans that don’t fit their timeline.
Though small trades of players earning the minimum aren’t very exciting for people who are wanting to see blockbuster trades, these small moves on the margins may take a team from the fringe of the playoffs to being a playoff team or better.
With the Blazers still short-handed till the return of Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic, which five players should be on their wish list heading into the deadline?