Why Blazers’ fan favorite should be on the table in OG Anunoby trade

Portland Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin has a fine line to walk as the Feb. 9 NBA trade deadline approaches.

Should he make small moves around the margins and hope they’re enough to give his team a chance at a playoff run? Should he call it quits on this season and start trading some of his better players with the future in mind?

Or should he make a blockbuster deal to bring another star to Rip City and go all-in on giving Damian Lillard a real shot at winning an NBA title right now?

If Cronin decides to go with the last option, it would require Portland to part ways with significant assets, including a player some believe may be the future of the franchise.

A deal for OG Anunoby would have to include Shaedon Sharpe

To net someone like Anunoby – one of the league’s best two-way players who’s on an extremely team-friendly contract  – would cost a pretty penny.

Sharpe is a 19-year-old rookie who’s already shown flashes of potential superstardom. But a key word there is “potential.”

Lillard wants, and needs, to win now. Even if Shaedon becomes an all-star caliber player two years from now, Dame will be 34 years old.

Adding Anunoby to a core that features Lillard, Anfernee Simons, and Jerami Grant (assuming he re-signs, which seems promising) gives the Blazers a more versatile, uber-athletic lineup with additional size and the ability to become one of the league’s best defenses.

Putting a stopper like Anunoby next to Grant would give Portland nearly 14-and-a-half feet worth of wingspan at the forward spots. Both are also switchable defenders who can guard up or down 1-4 and would eliminate a ton of the team’s backcourt defensive deficiencies.

OG would be an offensive upgrade over Sharpe, as well. The former Indiana Hoosier is a 37 percent career 3-point shooter who’s averaging a career-high 17.4 points per game this season.

Another vitally important piece to this potential trade? Anunoby is only owed $18.6 million next season and has a $19.9 million player option for 2024-25. He’s outperforming that deal, and the Blazers would get the rest of this year and next to gauge his fit alongside the rest of their key players.

Before Lillard put up 37 points to lead Portland to a much-needed win over San Antonio on Jan. 23, the Trail Blazers’ franchise player said, via The Athletic, “I do want to win. There’s no secret that I want to win, and I think we got to do whatever we have to do to be in a position to win. That’s the point of showing up: to give ourselves the best chance to win. And I’m all for whatever that means.”

Right now, that means Anunoby over Sharpe. Who knows if that will be the case five years from now. What we do know, though, is Dame will be 37 in five years.

That should be enough to pull the trigger and see what Lillard and the Blazers can do with another star on the roster.