The Trail Blazers recently made a five player trade with the Sacramento Kings. What are four key points to note from this trade?
This has been a quiet trade season so far, just one small trade has occured so far. The recent trade between the Kings and the Trail Blazers was a relatively big one. The Blazers sent Kent Bazemore, Anthony Tolliver and second round picks in 2024 and 2025 to the Kings, and brought back Trevor Ariza, Wenyen Gabriel and Caleb Swanigan.
The Blazers were expected to be active at the deadline, this may have just been the first domino to drop in terms of moves for this team though. This trade can either set them up for bigger moves, or can be part of tax saving moves dependent on the direction of this season, here are the implications of this trade.
Roster spots
The Blazers brought back three players in this trade but sent out two. This means that now they have no more roster spots, and they won’t be able to sign any ten-day contracts or free agents. All players contracts are now guaranteed for the season so if the Blazers were to try and clear a roster spot they would have to absorb the cap hit, or use a second round pick to get off a player.
This would be hard though as they only have one of their own second rounders available in the next six years.
They won’t be able to trade one player and return two in a deal now though.
Tax Implications
This is now where things get tricky, Neil Olshey has stated that this team wouldnt be making moves that impact the long-term future of this team.
Because of the large difference in Bazemore and Ariza’s deals, the Blazers made a significant saving by sending out a lot more money than what they brought in. This means at the moment they have a total saving of around $12 million including the salary tax implications.
Now these savings will only be realised if they don’t make other moves that will bring back more money. There is speculation that this is just a money saving move. It could be, but only if they don’t make other moves.
The second round picks depend entirely on how good the Blazers are in four years, but with the potential future development of this team and the likelihood of Damian Lillard still being here in four years, these picks may be of no value.
A key point to remember though is that maybe they were just trading down in total salary value at the saving of $4 million, to create room for another deal.
Even if they trade Hassan Whiteside for a player of equal salary, they would have saved the $12 million total regardless.
Expiring deals
Using Bazemore’s expiring salary is a very positive move though. If they let Bazemore expire, they would be unable to sign a replacement over the summer as they would be over the cap. By bringing back Ariza who has one guaranteed year and one non-guaranteed year they have used this expiring in the best way possible.
There may be questions around Ariza’s age and abilities, but maybe Ariza was the best player they could bring back in exchange for Bazemore. Getting Ariza was better than getting nothing. We will detail his fit in future articles, but he is a solid vet who can still play in this league.
Re-trading of players
One small negative is that Ariza can’t be ‘ aggregated ‘ in another deal now though. If you receive a player in a multiplayer trade this means that for two months after the trade you can’t re-trade the player in a multiplayer trade. Because there is under a month till the trade deadline, then Ariza can only be re-traded on his own.
The trade rules can be pretty complex, but it’s important to understand these in context with the moves that could be made in the future. With three weeks till the deadline, there’s still a strong chance there are moves to be made.