Three scenarios for the Trail Blazers at the trade deadline
Trade for a player that has full Bird Rights
A less risky option than the above is trading for someone and inheriting his bird rights so they can re-sign them in the offseason. Danilo Gallinari is the perfect example of this. He can help now and later, is a slightly lesser version of Kevin Love but would earn half what Love does if the Blazers were to re-sign him.
Remember, bird rights are where a player has had a three-year contract and the team he ends up on are able to go over the cap to re-sign him. Perfect for the Blazers, as they will be over the cap this summer.
Collins ability to play the four or the five gives this team great flexibility moving forward. His fit as a rim protecting center or three-point shooting power forward gives the Blazers great flexibility if they were to add another scoring forward. Gallinari is still only 31, has improved his efficiency with age and would be a great fit next to Nurkic and Collins.
Gallinari is a good passer for his size, he still gets to the line often and although he isn’t a strong rebounder anymore he doesn’t foul often.
Gallinari’s strong scoring is the key to this trade though. He still finishes at the rim at 60 percent while he hits the magic number of 40 percent from three. 40 percent from three at the height of six-foot-ten is basically unguardable. Stretching the floor and trying to draw the opposition bigs out to the perimeter would change things for Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Elite three point shooting at the big spots is something this Blazers team has never had. If they could bring back Gallinari on a $12 – $15 million a year deal they would add him to a balanced big man rotation when Skal Labissiere is mentioned with Nurkic and Collins.
The three options in this article could be traded for the specific players mentioned, while the same methods could be used to trade both Bazemore and Whiteside.
Lillard and McCollum aren’t getting any younger. Their primes need to be maximised now, or risk losing them later if they can’t contend for the playoffs. With only a month or so till the trade deadline, we don’t have long to wait to see which moves they make!