The Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics have been mirroring each other from opposite ends of Interstate 90 all season. Both teams have hovered around .500 and the middle of the pack in their respective conferences, and have seen spotty efforts from their best players.
The Celtics have managed to win half their road games, while Portland has stumbled to a 1-10 mark away from the Moda Center.
Boston came to Portland last night and blew the Blazers out of their own arena, shooting 56 percent from the field and exposing Portland’s numerous and growing defensive shortcomings.
With Neil Olshey fired and Danny Ainge being mentioned as a possible replacement, it’s not hard to imagine Ainge giving his protégé, Brad Stevens, a phone call.
Portland Trail Blazers – Boston Celtics trades we like:
Let’s dip into the land of children’s literature, and use Goldilocks to help us look at three trades the two teams could make:
Too Small, but both teams get help where they need it:
Boston’s porridge has too many defensive stoppers up front and not enough scoring. Portland’s is the reverse. In this analogy one of them is raisins, but I’m not sure which because they’re both equally as disappointing.
Horford is well past his peak at 35, but has returned to form after a couple of down years in Philadelphia and Oklahoma City. He’ll give the Blazers a defensive presence inside they so desperately need, and Williams is young and cheap and can be a serviceable ninth or 10th man.
Boston gets a perimeter-friendly big man in Robert Covington to help make room inside for their slash-and-dash trio of Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Marcus Smart, and a post scorer in Nurkic, who will love the easy buckets they feed him.
Covington and Jusuf Nurkic have been downright painful to watch on the defensive end, as they constantly either over or under-rotate and watch opponents cruise by them effortlessly; for the Blazers, this is defensive addition by subtraction.
But before the deadline hits, both teams will probably need more help than that. Let’s go overboard for a brief moment:
Too big, but gives both teams hope for the future:
This is a bigger move than usually gets made in the NBA, particularly mid-season, but should the deadline come with both these teams still near .500 and on the playoff bubble, rebuilds could be coming.
I don’t even like this trade. I don’t want to give up Anfernee Simons or Nassir Little unless we’re getting Giannis Antetokounmpo or a healthy Zion Williamson in return, but to get premier young talent in a trade you have to give some up.
CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard are functionally twins; the same goes for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. This trade gives both teams a more complementary one-two punch, and helps both teams achieve a much better offense/defense balance.
But it’s too much unless both GMs are truly desperate and ready to make such a gigantic trade.
So that leaves us with the perfect bowl of porridge:
Just right, as both teams address key issues without sacrificing their young core:
This one is just right. Marcus Smart may be inconsistent, but he brings the defensive versatility and consistent intensity Portland needs more than fish on Friday. Al Horford would help replace McCollum’s veteran presence and has enough left in his tank to be at least as valuable to the Blazers as Nurkic at center.
The Bosnian Breakdown has reverted to his shuffling, two-steps-behind-everyone form after a few inspired games, but maybe a change of scenery and a reunion with former backup Enes Freedom (formerly Kanter) will restore his will.
It will be hard to see McCollum go; he clearly loves Oregon and has been a model teammate and citizen. But his game is too similar to Lillard’s and Portland has gone as far as they can go with the pair.
Adding Smart would push Norman Powell back to his natural shooting guard spot and give the Blazers a lot more matchup flexibility.
Whether it’s Joe Cronin making deals or a permanent hire, we can expect whoever is in charge at the Moda Center to have a busy early 2022.