Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz recently proposed one trade target for every NBA team. For the Portland Trail Blazers, it was polarizing forward Michael Porter Jr. of the Brooklyn Nets.
Swartz notes Porter's offensive skill set as a fit for a defensive-minded Blazers roster that desperately needs more shooting and overall shot creation.
"Michael Porter Jr. has the offensive pop that this roster craves. The 27-year-old is one of the best pure shooters in the NBA and owns a career mark of 40.6 percent from deep. He should be very available from a bad Brooklyn Nets team, one that should be interested in swapping Porter for a player like Jerami Grant and a pick," Swartz writes.
Should Portland trade Jerami Grant for Michael Porter Jr.?
Swartz has the right idea with the framework of this hypothetical Grant deal. This offseason, the Nets acquired Porter and an unprotected 2032 first-round pick from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Cam Johnson. Brooklyn has the correct rebuilding approach as a team that utilizes its cap space to take on negative assets if they are incentivized in the form of future assets. That's the same exact structure for this deal, as they downgraded from Porter to Grant yet again.
However, the question Portland must ask itself is how significant an upgrade this is. Ultimately, it would come down to what draft capital the Blazers attach, but I'm skeptical that the amount required for Brooklyn to sign off on this would equate to what Portland would, or should, be willing to include in the package.
Both players are somewhat limited in what they offer in terms of impact on winning, as they are one-dimensional scorers. If this were proposed in the offseason, it would be a different story. But Grant has shown promising signs of a resurgence following a disappointing 2024-25 season. If he can bounce back, Grant is arguably even a better player than Porter straight up.
Porter is four years younger than Grant, with one less year remaining on his massive contract, which certainly should appeal to Portland. However, in terms of on-court production, Porter isn't the needle-mover the Blazers need, and therefore, it is not worth sacrificing draft capital to acquire. He's not a significant enough upgrade (if at all), considering the way Grant has looked early on.
Grant's situation with the Blazers is tricky, and there appears to be no ideal trade, which is why he remains in Portland despite the murky roster fit.