9. Portland Trail Blazers
Marquee summer move: Trading for Hassan Whiteside
The Portland Trail Blazers surprised the masses last season by making a run to the Western Conference Finals on the back of an explosive performance from Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. The hard part for the Blazers is how they will take a step forward without really make a splash move this summer.
Well, the hope is the team will (eventually) get Jusuf Nurkic back at some point this season, but they proactively traded for Hassan Whiteside to add some insurance in the frontcourt. As you would expect, it was a pretty polarizing move.
Hassan doesn’t exactly have the best of reputations at the moment in the NBA and is coming off his worst season since his return to the league. Though, if there’s one offense that you would expect him to flourish in, it would be one as explosive as Portland’s.