Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report proposed one trade that every team in the NBA would make if the trade deadline were before the start of the season instead of in February. The Portland Trail Blazers were a trade partner for a deal that Bailey proposed involving the Brooklyn Nets. To be fair, it was a deal that the Nets would make, so it doesn't seem to benefit the Blazers as much. Bailey has Portland paying a steep price to solve their massive Jerami Grant problem.
Here is the deal in full:
"The Brooklyn Nets already picked up a valuable first-round pick from the Denver Nuggets as part of the Cameron Johnson-Michael Porter Jr. trade. Now, trading MPJ for a worse contract (Jerami Grant's expires a year later, thanks to his 2027-28 player option) could get them another pick. Grant is undoubtedly a worse player than MPJ. He's also four years older. Since neither player will make Brooklyn competitive in the short term, the Nets might as well try to turn Porter into another asset," Bailey writes.
Portland shouldn't pay a premium to offload Jerami Grant
As frustrating as it is for Blazers fans that Grant remains on Portland's roster, it's actually the right decision for general manager Joe Cronin at this point. That's the crushing reality of this trade. It's a very realistic trade that Bailey proposes, and it just goes to show how much Portland will have to pay to dump their negative asset.
Given his declining production and the three years remaining on his five-year, $160 million deal, you could make a strong case for Grant being the worst contract in the entire league. With how cap-strapped teams now are under the new CBA, it's virtually impossible for Portland to offload Grant without sacrificing valuable future assets, even if he does have a bounce-back season.
As players, there are striking similarities between Michael Porter Jr. and Grant. Both have great positional size but are very one-dimensional players that don't provide much outside of their scoring and floor spacing ability. As Bailey notes, the Nuggets had to attach a pick just to get off MPJ. Now, the Blazers have to attach an additional pick to get this player, who the Nets had to be incentivized to add to their roster.
It's the right idea to find someone like Porter or Kuzma, whom Bailey has Portland acquiring in a separate trade idea involving Grant. It's a long shot to find someone to save the Blazers from their Grant nightmare, but the only realistic chance Portland has lies in trading for another, slightly less negative asset.
However, if the cost to upgrade that contract is too steep, Portalnd could be better off just staying in the hole they've dug themselves. That's the case in this deal, as a first-round pick seems too valuable if Porter is the only player they have to show for it.