The Portland Trail Blazers land a perfect costar for Damian Lillard thanks to the Toronto Raptors
Why this trade works for the Portland Trail Blazers:
Trades of a similar structure have been making the rounds around Blazers twitter and for good reason. This move truly makes sense for every team involved. The Portland Trail Blazers here land a significant upgrade on defense without giving up too much scoring.
Pascal Siakam would give the Blazers a legitimate slasher that can also space the floor and lockdown on defense.
Just like Terrence Ross and Draymond Green would in the previous trades, Siakam would give Portland the ability to play Powell at his true position, upgrading the defense in result. He’s a much more versatile defender than Ross, but not quite at the level of Green. Though he is malleable enough to guard some stronger forwards that RoCo might not be able to slow down, regardless of whether they’re a three or four.
Siakam allows the Blazers to size up without sacrificing too much floor-spacing or scoring here. The 28th overall pick from the 76ers is a nice cherry on top of their new star addition.
Why this trade works for the Philadelphia 76ers:
All of the above reasons that CJ McCollum would be a welcome addition to Philly’s supersized roster still stand. The only difference here is that instead of a seventh overall pick, they move up three spots and get the chance to draft a future star with the fourth selection in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Why this trade works for the Toronto Raptors:
This move officially pushes the Toronto Raptors into the rebuild they’ve been putting off since winning the 2019 NBA Championship.
While Siakam was a revelation for them and a huge contributor to their title, Simmons offers them a much better foundation to build upon.
Between him, Chris Boucher, OG Anunoby, and Fred VanVleet, the Raptors could be in for one of the quickest “rebuilds” in NBA history.
It’s become apparent that Siakam is just talented enough to keep them from landing a top-three pick, but isn’t quite cornerstone material for the future.
Even though they landed the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft, they’ll be hard pressed to find a prospect with a higher ceiling than Ben Simmons once Cade Cunningham and Evan Mobley are off the board.