The Portland Trail Blazers made the interesting decision to re-sign Jerami Grant to a five-year, $160 million contract this offseason. Maybe it deserves a word other than interesting – Confusing? Unwise? Illogical? Nonsensical?
Regardless, Grant is back in Portland as a veteran starter alongside a young franchise-cornerstone trio of Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons. As the Blazers are still expected to trade Damian Lillard at some point, the former Syracuse standout will become one of the most proven NBA players on a team expected to lean into a rebuild.
It’s not the worst idea ever to have Grant back in the fold. He fits well alongside the team’s future big three as a long, athletic two-way combo forward who shot better than 40 percent from three last season. However, the 29-year-old isn’t a seamless fit in Portland’s long-term rebuilding plan.
There’s a chance, then, that Grant becomes a trade chip by the time the 2023-24 trade deadline rolls around. Moving his contract won’t be easy, but he would be a useful player for a contender.
If the Blazers decide to send one of their key starters packing, what players might they get in return that could help the organization continue down the tanking/rebuilding path and help set it up for another high lottery pick in the 2024 NBA Draft?
Here are five of them.
Option No. 1: Davis Bertans, Oklahoma City Thunder
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a First Team All-NBA player last season and is showing it on a worldwide stage now at the FIBA World Cup. With a load of future draft assets, the plan in Oklahoma City has always seemingly been to continue building for the future – but does SGA’s massive leap into one of the league’s elite players speed things up?
If that’s the decision Thunder General Manager Sam Presti decides to make, a veteran such as Grant would fit nicely between cornerstones Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams as a defender and floor spacer who could help make a deep postseason run.
From Portland’s perspective, getting an expiring contract like Bertans in return would be solid. The 32-year-old Latvian has an early termination option in 2024-25 with just $5 million guaranteed. The Blazers could exercise that and let him go, freeing up more than $10 million in cap space to use in the future.
Option No. 2: Ben Simmons, Brooklyn Nets
Simmons recently gave an interview in which he repeated the same old offseason story: he’s been working hard on his game, has been getting healthy and is ready to make an impact this year.
We’ve heard that story before.
Still, the former NBA Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Defense player has talent in there somewhere. Whether that will ever resurface is a real question, but for a team like the Blazers who aren’t planning on winning anytime soon, it could be worth taking a flier on a player such as Simmons in the off chance he does rediscover some of that form.
His skill set would be perfect in Portland, too, as a big, athletic defender, ball handler and willing passer. Those attributes would all cover for what Henderson, Simons and Sharpe all lack.
The Nets, meanwhile, would be swapping a potentially useless and expensive player for another expensive player, but one that would definitely serve a purpose on an ascending team. Adding Grant to three-and-D wings Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson could make Brooklyn deeper and even more versatile as it continues to push its way up the Eastern Conference.
Option No. 3: Mike Conley, Minnesota Timberwolves
Another point guard is certainly not what the Blazers need. However, Portland could use a $24.3 million expiring contract and, quite honestly, a solid veteran in Conley to work with inexperienced players such as Scoot and Sharpe.
With 17 years of NBA experience and more than 1,000 games played – including 78 postseason appearances – Conley is a seasoned vet and has always been a well-respected leader in the locker room. His best playing days are behind him, but Portland doesn’t need, or really even want, him to soak up a ton of minutes.
The Timberwolves, meanwhile, need a giant roster shakeup, even if they haven’t acknowledged it yet.
Anthony Edwards is no longer the future of the franchise; he’s the present. It’s time he has the ball in his hands and runs the show, so another ballhandler isn’t a need. And if things go south in Minnesota during the first half of this season, two things will quickly become clear:
- The Wolves need to immediately make moves to give Edwards the roster he wants and needs before he becomes the next superstar to demand a trade.
- Minny will need to trade more than just Conley. Karl-Anthony Towns is the team’s most valuable asset outside of Edwards, and if the franchise is really going to rebuild on the fly, Towns will need to be on the move as well.
That would open a spot for Grant, whose versatility and proven role as a secondary scorer would help Ant continue to develop. His defensive length and ability would pair nicely with Rudy Gobert as well, allowing Edwards to run the show on offense while having two good defenders behind him.
Option No. 4: Tobias Harris, Philadelphia 76ers
Harris is admittedly a good enough player to make tanking difficult in Portland. But he has a massive expiring contract and the Blazers proved last season they have no qualms shamelessly taking winning players off the court at the end of the year if it can help their draft position.
On the court, Harris is almost a like-for-like replacement for Grant and would easily fill his spot in the starting lineup. More than anything, though, the Tennessee product is owed $39.2 million in the final year of his deal. Having a chunk of money like that come off the books would be a huge boon for the Blazers’ rebuild.
From a Sixers perspective, Grant could be a long-term version of Harris willing to play second fiddle to Joel Embiid, who Philadelphia needs to keep happy by winning. Jerami’s defense and floor spacing are superior to those of Harris.
Additionally, the uncertainty of the James Harden situation is creating major problems in Philly. The Beard is likely to be traded at some point, which A) would open up cap space to fit Grant in and B) would keep a proven veteran next to Embiid.
A core of Joel, Grant and Tyrese Maxey in a bigger role should be enough to help the 76ers remain one of the better teams in the East.
Option No. 5: Rudy Gobert, Minnesota Timberwolves
Minnesota’s argument for making this type of deal was covered earlier – except sending away Gobert rather than Conley or Towns would be massively more appealing.
The organization decided to swing for the fences and trade way too many assets for a player making way too much money. The Wolves would surely be willing to let Gobert leave and recoup as many assets as possible – probably any assets at all, really.
But why would the Blazers take on someone else’s problem?
For starters, Portland could possibly coax out a draft pick or two out of Minnesota to take on its unwanted, expensive baggage.
As onerous as Gobert’s contract is (he signed a five-year, $205 million deal with the Utah Jazz), it expires in 2025-26, assuming he picks up a player option for $47 million, which can be written in stone already.
That means the Blazers would get a bigger chunk of salary off the books and do so two years earlier than they would with Grant.
And hey, there’s a chance The Stifel Tower brings his shot blocking to Rip City as the rim-protector Portland needs behind its defensively challenged guards. In three years, the Blazers could be ready to make a real playoff run, in which case Gobert’s skill set may actually be valuable in the final year of his deal.
Stranger things have happened…right?