My Portland friend said they have sensed
Anfernee Simons will be CJ's long term investment.
Simons's progress this season and the result made them decide to cash in CJ.
Yeah, Simons made a jump this season for sure. We'll see how does with increased playing time/a bigger role but this season his per minute numbers are almost identical to McCollum. Well, other that FT% where Simons is shooting almost 20% better from the line.
But this was also part of the justification for the Powell/Covington deal - that the Blazers were opening up more minutes for him. But that doesn't make the Blazers a better team right now and Lillard turns 32 this offseason. Maybe we just chalk these two deals up to an interim GM doing a poor job and getting less than market value for his assets.
Because the only two ways that these trades make sense to me are if (a) they plan to trade Lillard and rebuild fully or (b) they are stockpiling assets and caproom for win now moves this summer. You shut Dame down and tank, and then deal that pick and the draft capital from New Orleans for a piece and try to sign another impact player.
But that doesn't make sense for a number of reasons. Similar to the Kings, the Blazers rarely make big FA signings, this draft is not one loaded with talent that you can likely get impact veterans in trade for unless maybe you land a top 2 pick and teams really want one of the top kids, and it doesn't seem like you'd start a rebuild process with an interim GM.
So all I can think is that they are going for a full rebuild (Dame to the Sixers for Simmons and either Maxey or Thybulle?) or they just don't know what they are doing at all.