The Portland Trail Blazers continued their roster overhaul Tuesday, sending CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., and Tony Snell to the New Orleans Pelicans for four players and three draft picks
In the past five days, the Portland Trail Blazers have gone all-in on aiming for one of the top three picks in this summer’s NBA draft. On Thursday they sent Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers for two bags of peanuts and a used Kleenex. Today’s involved seven players but will forever be known as the CJ McCollum trade.
McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., and Tony Snell head to the New Orleans Pelicans for Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tomas Satoransky, Didi Louzada, a protected first-round pick in the upcoming draft (the Blazers get the pick if it falls between No. 5 and No. 14) and two future second-rounders.
Portland cleared more than $25 million off of this year’s books – avoiding incurring the repeater tax next year – and, with the expected buyout of Eric Bledsoe’s contract, nearly $50 million from next year’s.
That should clear more than enough room to re-sign Anfernee Simons and, if desired, Nassir Little and/or Jusuf Nurkic to long-term deals. Hart is signed through 2023 with an additional year as a player option, and Johnson has very affordable team options for 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Alexander-Walker’s rookie deal expires in July of 2023, but he’ll earn just over $5 million next season backing up Lillard and Simons.
This deal certainly doesn’t inspire immediate disgust like last week’s Norman Powell Giveaway Sweepstakes did, but adding more shooting guards to an already undersized roster doesn’t make much sense unless there are more moves to be made in the next 48 hours. And only the long-term development of Johnson, Hart, and Walker will tell whether Portland got enough in return for Powell and McCollum.
Presuming Blazers interim general manager Joe Cronin isn’t about to shock Portland with a Damian Lillard deal, Nurkic, Little, and Ben McLemore are the most tradeable among the Blazer holdovers. Bledsoe and Louzada aren’t guaranteed much money next season so they could be shipped in smaller one-for-one deals, but neither is likely to attract much interest.
But since Portland’s front office is clearly focused on the future, let’s do the same and take a closer look at the four players coming to the Blazers from New Orleans.