Portland Trail Blazers: 3 trades to make on NBA Draft night

Portland Trail Blazers trade #1 – Derrick Jones Jr and a future second-round pick for Tristan Thompson

The Blazers need a big man who can provide solid production off the bench and some passable defense. In Tristan Thompson, of the Boston Celtics, they could bring in a guy with championship experience and real defensive chops.

Thompson is a six-foot-nine big man who can play both of the frontcourt positions. Because he can’t shoot the three, he is mainly a center, but his ability to defend out to the perimeter means he could play next to a floor-spacing four like Robert Covington.

Because of his athleticism, and a seven-foot-one wingspan, he can competently guard the four and five positions. Offensively, he is a hustle-type big man who is a strong finisher at the rim, and excellent at drawing fouls. He is a great offensive rebounder too, finishing in the top 10 in his position in offensive rebound percentage in eight out of ten years in the league.

Thompson can solve the Blazers big man issues by swapping him with Jones Jr. Thompson could back up Jusuf Nurkic, and potentially play a little bit of four against bigger Western Conference opponents.

With the Celtics now focussing on Robert Williams at the five spot, with Al Horford backing him up, they can bring in Jones to give an above-the-rim presence that the Celtics don’t currently have.

Jones could play the two, three, or four depending on matchups, thus letting franchise centerpieces Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum slide up or down positions. A future second-round pick would have to go the way of the Celtics in this deal.