3 trades with the Indiana Pacers for the Portland Trail Blazers to consider

Indiana Pacers/Portland Trail Blazers trade #3: Reconfiguring both rosters

To pry both Sabonis and Lamb may take a bigger package than some Blazer fans would be comfortable with; they might even have to include Simons or Little. And to be honest, this is a bigger trade than any NBA GMs are ever willing to make.

But here at Rip City Project, we’re not bound by things like reality. So we’re going to imagine a trade where the Blazers get eons better on defense and clear their frontcourt of two players whose defensive skills are far more legendary than actual.

Sabonis is Nurkic with better passing skills, shot selection, and attitude. And as mentioned above, both LeVert and Holiday would be massive upgrades to Portland’s rotational defense and energy levels.

Indiana gets the best of both the above deals: McCollum to go forward, and cap space and a pick to help the rebuilding process. And it leaves them with Turner to flip for more young assets or picks.

It’s been hard to read the intentions of the Blazers front office this season, what with the whole our-GM-is-unfit-for-professional-life thing, so it’s hard to tell if they’re in fine-tuning or demolition and reconstruction mode.

But hopefully whatever the overall strategy is, it includes hanging on to Lillard, Simons, Little, and Powell. Those four can be the core of a championship team, and if they aren’t the only four players on the roster playing defense, maybe we can write championship parade stories instead of trade speculation ones.