Portland Trail Blazers: Exploring Anfernee Simons trades

The Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder exchange young stars

Why the Blazers do it:

Portland Trail Blazers fans have coveted a two-way star at small forward since Damian Lillard arrived in Rip City. This trade offers them a chance to acquire one.

Luguentz Dort is quickly becoming one of the most underrated prospects in the NBA. Still only 22 years old, he’s averaging 17 points per game while shooting 43 percent from the field, 33 from deep, and 84 from the stripe.

Of course, his output will go down playing on a team with many more scoring options than the rebuilding Thunder, but his efficiency should climb as a result.

Those who haven’t been tuning into the Thunder — probably 99 percent of Blazers fans — might think of Dort as a defensive beast, but a project on offense. Well, that project is coming along much quicker than many expected.

On a team with so few reliable scorers, Dort has been asked to take difficult shots like these quite often, and he’s converted them pretty well.

With his rapidly improving offensive game and his infamous lockdown ability on the perimeter, Dort is the exact kind of piece that the Blazers have been looking to pair Dame with.

He’s also under contract through 2022-2023 for a measly $1.9 million per year, which would help Portland to crawl under the luxury tax line this year.

Why the Thunder do it:

As quickly as Lu Dort is evolving, he’s likely close to his final form. Besides added efficiency, his body-type and lack of fluidity with the ball suggest that he probably won’t improve much more as a scorer.

Anfernee Simons on the other hand, may just be scratching the surface of what he could be one day. Loaded with jump-out-the-gym athleticism and a picture perfect deep stroke, Simons is a few pounds of muscle and a consistent midrange jumper away from becoming offensively dominant.

Pundits around the league are already questioning if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has the chops to be a franchise cornerstone. Ant legitimately has the potential to be a leading scorer on a championship team one day.

With the Thunder trying to swing for the fences every single at-bat, this move makes a lot of sense for Sam Presti and his rebuild.

If OKC demands a couple of second-rounders to sweeten the pot, so be it.