Connect the dots, and the final tally is essentially McCollum and Nance for Grant and Hart. The Blazers generated a trade exception from the McCollum trade that they flipped, along with the Milwaukee pick, for Pistons forward Grant. Meanwhile, starters Norm Powell and Robert Covington went to the Clippers for prospect Keon Johnson, a future second, the since-departed Eric Bledsoe and the marginally useful Justise Winslow. Portland also received three players in that deal, all of whom are already gone. went to New Orleans for Josh Hart and a theoretical 2022 lottery pick that cocooned into a less desirable 2025 Milwaukee first when the Pelicans unexpectedly made the playoffs. See if you can follow along:ĬJ McCollum and Larry Nance Jr. Portland put itself in that position not just by shutting down its three best players, but also by trading several others. Even by the standards of recent tanking efforts, it was embarrassing. Nine of those defeats were by more than 30 points, including margins of 50 and 43, and 18 of the 21 defeats were by double figures. Portland punted the tail end of its 2021-22 season in grand fashion, shutting down Lillard, Jusuf Nurkić and eventually even Anfernee Simons while storming to a 2-21 finish over its final 23 games. This version of the Blazers is certainly more humble, but the more relevant question is whether it is any better after taking a gap year to rebuild. OK, that isn’t precisely true - a couple other players also remain from the previous Trail Blazers iteration, one that tried to outscore people with a guard-oriented offense while offering themselves haughty praise about their championship aspirations. In the wake of a year-plus of massive upheaval that included a new coach, a new general manager and mostly a new roster, about the only thing that is the same with Portland is Damian Lillard.
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