Portland Trail Blazers: Exploring Anfernee Simons trades
By Andy Quach
The Portland Trail Blazers land Domantas Sabonis
Why the Blazers do it:
Portland fans have been drooling at the prospect of seeing Domantas Sabonis donning his father’s number for the Blazers since the Indiana Pacers announced their plans to tear it down and rebuild.
While I’m a strong advocate for bringing in Myles Turner instead of Baby Sabas — due to Turner’s fit next to Dame as a floor-stretching, shot-blocking big — to swallow the thought of giving up Simons, you have to land the best possible player in return.
Sabonis’s fit on offense with the Trail Blazers would be brilliant. He offers all of the benefits that Jusuf Nurkic does as a screener, but adds more reliable finishing at the rim and better vision as a short-roll playmaker.
Deploying him as a high-post offensive hub to find Portland’s myriad snipers for open looks from deep would cause fever dreams for those sick of watching isolations and Nurk hand-offs that generally lead nowhere.
While Sabonis certainly isn’t a defensive force by any means, he is a tad more mobile than Nurk, making him better suited to run Billups’s “at-the-level” pick-and-roll coverage. The real hope is that the Blazers will be so effective on offense, that they can just count on a few stops along the way and outgun their opponents nightly.
Justin Holiday comes in to replace some of the bench scoring that would be lost with Simons headed to the Midwest. He’s an effective shot creator, secondary playmaker, reliable deep shooter, and decent defender.
Why the Pacers do it:
In this move, the Indiana Pacers land Anfernee Simons as a potential cornerstone for their rebuild. He and Chris Duarte make for a nice, young backcourt to create a solid foundation to construct their new era around.
Robert Covington and Jusuf Nurkic present Indiana with nearly $25 million in expiring contracts. They could also take the Oklahoma City Thunder route and flip the veterans for future assets, which shouldn’t be too hard to do if they aren’t too picky.
The Pacers may ask for some draft capital in this transaction. If it’s second-rounders or one first-round pick, this swap is still worth it for the Blazers.