While it wasn’t the dream scenario of landing the top slot and getting the opportunity to select Victor Wembanyama, Portland General Manager Joe Cronin did have a great lottery night as he watched his team vault up to the third slot in the 2023 NBA Draft. With a Blazers trade seemingly on the horizon, there are both obvious examples of players the team could target and a handful of under-the-radar moves to make.
The Blazers have all but announced that the pick is up for sale by committing to building a contender around Damian Lillard. While it may be tempting to imagine Brandon Miller lacing up a Blazers jersey and solidifying the wing for years, it’s more likely the team will move the premium pick for a veteran star or package that could help it make the playoffs.
A number of high profile names have already been mentioned, with Jaylen Brown’s name popping up most recently during the Boston Celtics’ slump. Most of the mock trades involving the third pick include Anfernee Simons, given his contract isn’t an albatross and packaging him with the pick could net a true star, but that isn’t the only path available to Portland.
If the Blazers decline the team options and renounce the cap hits of the players they don’t want to keep (potentially Cam Reddish, Matisse Thybulle, Justise Winslow, and Kevin Knox II), while packaging the pick with Jusuf Nurkic instead, Portland could be in line for a handful of different deals than expected due to its increased salary cap room.
Here are six different trades built around that format in which the Blazers can keep Simons while upgrading their center or forward spots.
Fresh Blazers trade ideas that don’t involve Anfernee Simons
No. 1: A Portland-Chicago swap
Both the Trail Blazers and Bulls have followed similar paths as teams the past few years. Both sought to push their chips in to open a contending window, but despite the great play of both Lillard and Chicago’s Zach LaVine, neither team has been able to make any sort of dent in the postseason picture with their current cores.
If the Bulls want to bite the bullet and start a rebuild, they’ll need to trade their biggest needle-mover outside of LaVine. While the former Timberwolves star may be a sexier fit next to Lillard, the better move for both teams would be sending DeMar DeRozan and Alex Caruso to PDX while the Bulls snag a premium pick to rebuild.
Nikola Vucevic is slated to seek a sizeable raise in the offseason, which the Bulls may not want to stomach, and acquiring Nurkic gives them the stability that they need at the position. The chance to draft either Scoot Henderson and hand him the keys to the offense or Miller, who would be a wonderful second fiddle to LaVine, are attractive options for Chicago.
For the Blazers, the chance to pair Lillard with a proven scorer like DeRozan could pay dividends. The former Raptors and Spurs guard would become the best player that Dame’s played with, and Lillard would help open up even more space to for DeRozan’s dominant post game.
Adding Caruso off the bench also gives the Blazers one of the strongest guard rooms in the entire Western Conference due to its balance.
Portland would still need to add a center to fill in for Nurkic, but it’s easier to find suitable big men than it is to find a talented wing. Adding DeRozan would be the exact type of under-the-radar move the Blazers need to get right back in the playoff picture.
No. 2: Blazers get better, Utah continues its rebuild
The Utah Jazz were a pleasant surprise for most of the 2022-23 season, making a bigger impact than expected due to shrewd coaching and an overperforming roster.
Most of their surprising success came from Lauri Markkanen tearing up the old script to his career and rewriting himself as a top NBA scoring option who made the Western Conference All-Star Team and won the NBA Most Improved Player Award.
Despite his personal success, Markkanen only has a few years left on his deal and his timeline may not align with the developmental plan that the Jazz and front office leader Danny Ainge want.
If that’s the case, there are few better assets available for the Jazz to nab than a top three pick in a top-heavy draft.
While Nurkic would at best provide some spot minutes behind Walker Kessler, the real prize for Utah in this deal would be either Miller or Henderson. Both players would fill a massive hole for the team’s future, and either is capable of taking over the primary scoring load from day one.
For the Blazers, the move would give them a stupendous second option after Lillard. Markkanen wouldn’t help solve the defensive issues, but the front court pairing of him and Jerami Grant would give Portland one of the best forward combinations in the league due to their versatile offensive games.
Markkanen could be the first part of a Blazers plan to follow the blueprint of this year’s Sacramento Kings team, one that made the playoffs by being so good at offense that their poor defense didn’t matter.
It’s a risky proposition, but landing Markkanen would give Lillard the type of needle mover that he craves.
No. 3: Blazers add for now, Spurs add more for later
The San Antonio Spurs are already the biggest winners from the NBA Draft Lottery as they sustained their top odds and ended up with the top pick. With Victor Wembanyama, the future of the Spurs has been boosted and the team can now start to speak in whens, not ifs, for making the playoffs again.
Even with that luck, however, the team has a number of spots to fill on its roster. It has a few players, such as Jeremy Sochan or Devin Vassell, who could one day be stars, but there are no other blue chip prospects on the roster.
If the team wants to fully support Wembanyama, they may want to make a major swing for another young star to pair with him.
That’s where the Blazers come in. This trade would give San Antonio the pick to select either Henderson or Miller to be the perfect co-star for Wembanyama, which would give them one of the higher future ceilings in the league.
Adding Nurkic to the front court would help Wembanyama avoid the banging and jostling in the post that could break his body down faster than expected and fulfill his desire to play power forward at the NBA level.
For Portland, this under-the-radar trade would give the franchise an infusion of high-upside wings who are both ready to play today and could one day be borderline star players.
Keldon Johnson is a swing forward who has shown the ability to carry a team, albeit one as bad as the Spurs, with scoring and rebounding. His fit next to Grant is natural and would give the team a great core of forwards.
The real prize of the trade, however, would be Vassell, who already is playing like a true two-way wing. Those archetypes are hard to find, and pairing a player with that skillset with Lillard would be a match made in heaven.
Vassell would have the space to grow and become his best self while avoiding the pressure of defenses that would be keyed in on Dame instead.
No. 4: Blazers add depth while maintaining a lottery pick
After the years that each team had, this may seem like a befuddling trade, but there are some clear reasons behind it.
The Blazers would obviously love a star player to pair with Lillard, but they may be better served getting a package that has a greater sum of parts.
The Thunder, who looked like a potential playoff team last year, are still incredibly young and run the risk of overachieving before assembling the right core to support Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Snagging a marquee player like Henderson or Miller, even with their questionable fits, could be the right move for the Thunder of 2026 more than 2023.
To jump that high up in the draft, Oklahoma City would give up a starting wing stopper, its best sniper from deep, its rookie starter at center, and its own lottery pick. It is a steep price, but the Thunder would pair Chet Holmgren with a natural front court player in Nurkic while maintaining their young core and adding a dynamic piece to it.
This trade would actualize the best possible roster around Lillard without adding another star. Dort is a natural fit at small forward, as he can space the floor and guard the best perimeter player on the other team.
Williams flew under the radar, but he started 36 games for a play-in team as a rookie due to his size and defense. Adding a shooter like Joe would only make the team’s bench better, while a late lottery pick is a valuable asset as well.
No. 5: Blazers improve their D, keep some draft assets
Most trades involving the Trail Blazers and the Nets surround Mikal Bridges. That’s well warranted, as Bridges blew up in Brooklyn after his trade from the Suns, but he’s in the prime of his career, is team controlled, and the Nets already rejected massive pick-laden packages for him at the trade deadline.
Instead of overpaying to pry Bridges out of Brooklyn’s clutches, Portland could instead pivot to grab the second-best asset that the Nets have: Nic Claxton.
Claxton emerged as one of the more athletic defensive centers in the league last year, helping the Nets to a great defensive rating when Kevin Durant was still with the team. He would be one of the few players who could singlehandedly change Portland’s defense overnight.
The appeal of this trade comes from an honest assessment of the Nets’ current roster. At best, a team led by Bridges, Claxton, and Spencer Dinwiddie would make the playoffs by the skin of their teeth, not contend for titles.
If their ultimate goal is to one day bring a trophy to Brooklyn, a player like Miller or Henderson would get them closer than running back this team.
Adding Claxton and pair of late first-round picks gives the Blazers a flexible trio of picks – Nos. 21, 22, and 23 – to target other players with, while also giving them the one of the best young defensive players in the league.
They could target some underrated draft prospects or package their picks to go get a starting small forward to shore up the last hole on their roster.
No. 6: Portland fills its most glaring roster hole
The Cleveland Cavaliers, long considered one of the best young teams in the NBA, took a massive step forward and, for portions of the season, simply looked like one of the best teams in the NBA with their high-octane backcourt and defensively dominant frontcourt.
In the playoffs, however, the Cavs had a rude awakening at the hand of the New York Knicks, who dismantled them in five games. While the Cleveland defense worked during the regular season, the foundation was rattled in the playoffs, which should at least lead the team’s brain trust to explore other avenues.
If they want to stay more aligned to their age-related developmental path and fill their massive hole on the wing, the team could look to trade its most moveable young player: Jarrett Allen.
If the Cavs swapped him for Nurkic and the third pick, they’d take a moderate step back on defense but could draft Miller to fill their wing vacancy while also entrusting more responsibility on both ends to budding star Evan Mobley.
This under-the-radar trade is similar to the one with Brooklyn. Of the many players that are actually available this summer, Allen exists as one of the few who could actually turn the team into a solid defensive squad.
Okoro is more of a flier, but he has some solid defensive chops as well.
Allen’s shot-blocking alongside Grant would give the team an athletic and disciplined defensive frontcourt, which would be the perfect complement to Lillard and could lead to Portland rocketing up the standings as soon as next year.