Portland Trail Blazers: Will the time come to trade CJ McCollum?

It’s never a good time to talk about moving one of your best players, but will the time come for the Portland Trail Blazers to move CJ McCollum?

At times when this Portland Trail Blazers team or another team plays badly, some fans tend to get on a certain player and say he should be traded. This irrational way of thinking isn’t the way to go when supporting a team. When building a team and trying to contend for championships or the playoffs, one game or even a week of games doesn’t determine a players value to their franchise. No team trades a player because of a bad game or a bad few weeks, when a player gets traded it’s usually because of his fit with the other team members.

This Blazers team hasn’t been healthy yet. This is the biggest issue with the current construction of the roster. Improved young players Gary Trent Jr and Anfernee Simons haven’t shared rotation minutes with Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic. This team was very different when Nurk was healthy on court in 2019.

When everyone gets back in the 2021 season including Rodney Hood and Collins, then management will get a better idea of how all the pieces fit together. The current version of this squad when fit is pretty strong. Apart from a slight weakness at the three, this team is strong across the board, especially offensively.

But, when we look at the overall construction of this team and the contract situation moving forward, do the two main pieces fit?

It’s important to answer this question, around the combo of CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard. In some way you could talk yourself into their fit. Their games are slightly different and give a strong one-two punch which had great success in last years playoffs. They are both élite shooters from every spot on the court and can happily take turns

As mentioned above, because this team hasn’t been fit, it will make it hard for Neil Olshey to justify breaking up Dame and CJ until he sees how everyone else fits. But they have been playing together a while now so we know what they can bring as a combo.

But justifying their fit because of how good they are as individuals just isn’t right. On the offensive end, CJ never gets to the line and also struggles to get to the rim. When he does get to the rim he isn’t a great finisher there. Dame gets to the rim a lot more and is slightly better finishing there, while also getting to the line a lot.

Their defense is a massive issue. Both are only league average defenders, meaning this team’s ceiling is severely limited in the playoffs. Neither of them are strong defenders, and when you combine this with CJ’s lack of rebounding, it makes this backcourt combo a weakness defensively when you get to the highest level.

The main issue this team will have moving forward as Dame ages, is penetration to the rim. Small guards don’t age well. That’s a fact. Dame will at some point in the next 2 – 3 years take a step back in terms of athleticism at the rim and frequency of getting there. If CJ already isn’t doing this, then you have a guard pairing being paid a combined $70 million a year who can’t get easy buckets.

This means on the nights that their shots aren’t dropping, the team will struggle to score. Now this would be less of a problem if there was a microwave type guy and / or a true sniper on the team. Because of how much salary is committed to Dame and CJ they are unable to bring in major free agents. This will be even harder in two years when their new extensions kick in.

At the moment trading CJ isn’t the best move. He is still on a value deal of only $27 million and just came off some epic performances in the playoffs last year. But in the future as he and Dame age this will need to be considered. The other side of the coin is what would happen if GTJ and Simons really breakout.

Obviously this would be good for the team. But if we truly saw either of them develop into competent NBA starters who were consistently hitting 15 points a game then that would be a game-changer for the franchise. They wouldn’t need to be as good as CJ but as they command less of a role and are more off-ball players then they may suit the system and Dame even better.

When CJ’s extension kicks in he will be earning around 30, 33 and then 35 million per year. This contract isn’t terrible but could go that way if he slows down when he is older. But if the team had GTJ and Simons replacing his production, while also defending and getting to the rim, then this would suit the team better.

Trent can already defend well and he has barely played 50 NBA games in his career. He is bigger than CJ and will command a smaller payday when he hits restricted free agency. Simons is a heat-up quick guy who may never be as efficient as CJ but could still provide good scoring and would be more of a rim attacking threat.

These two individually may never be as good as CJ, but combined they would probably be cheaper and would definitely fit the team better because of their combined varied skill sets.

This would mean that Olshey could look to move CJ for a premium wing. This could be a wing that matches Dame’s timeline as well as being part of the Blazers long-term future.

Maybe when Nurk gets back this team is transformed and no moves need to be made. But the option of moving CJ should be something that Olshey considers in the future. History will tell you that small guards don’t age well.

Let’s hope that Olshey has a plan that plays to both players strengths. No moves will be made at least till the summer anyway. In the meantime we can enjoy the return of Nurk in March and hopefully see the combo of Dame and CJ get us to the playoffs.