The NBA as a whole right now is at a standstill as teams wait for the Portland Trail Blazers to deal Damian Lillard elsewhere following his trade request.
As the Blazers field offers for their All-Star, the Bleacher Report staff recently put together a trade between the Blazers and Boston Celtics for Lillard. In that same article, one writer created a deal between the Blazers and Brooklyn Nets that did not involve Lillard, but featured Anfernee Simons instead.
Other teams have already been trying to rip off Portland enough in Lillard hypotheticals; the Blazers don’t need this kind of deal making the rounds of NBA Twitter.
Pros of this trade between the Portland Trail Blazers and Brooklyn Nets
This section will be fairly short, as there are not a ton of overly positive things to say here.
Bleacher Report tries to justify it by saying the Blazers would make way for Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe in the backcourt. Sure, trading away Simons would ensure that the young duo of Henderson and Sharpe are the alpha guards, but teams shouldn’t trade away good talent for very little just to do so.
The Milwaukee Bucks aren’t going to trade Khris Middleton for pennies on the dollar to make room for sophomore wing MarJon Beauchamp, for example.
Spender Dinwiddie could be a great locker room presence for Henderson and Sharpe as they look to solidify themselves as an up-and-coming backcourt. On top of that, his contract is expiring, so the Trail Blazers wouldn’t be committed to him long-term.
They could also just flip him for another asset if a different team needs a guard, which could help bring more pieces to Portland, though it’s unclear what kind of haul he could get the Blazers at this point.