Blazers: Pick Protections Make In-Season CJ Trade Likely

Have the Portland Trail Blazers laid the groundwork for an in-season CJ McCollum trade? 

The final NBA Free Agency domino fell last week. In short, the Cleveland Cavaliers signed Lauri Markkenan (via a three-team sign-and-trade) as the Portland Trail Blazers traded the underachieving high flyer Derrick Jones Jr. for Cleveland’s allegedly elite defensive highflyer Larry Nance Jr., and it only cost them a future first-round pick.

But the details of that pick demonstrate a commitment by the Blazers front office to not trading any other picks – and perhaps finally trading CJ McCollum.

Because the pick owed to Chicago is lottery-protected every single year through 2028, they cannot offer picks to teams in any year until we know when the pick conveys. The protection on the pick could be changed anytime if Portland and Chicago mutually agree, but I cannot remember the last time pick protections were changed.

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So, the Blazers cannot trade any picks until at least after Draft night 2022, signifying that the  Blazers will try one more time with this current core and if results again prove inadequate mid-season, their only means to get better involve trading core players, likely McCollum or Norman Powell, since Robert Covington and Jusuf Nurkic are on expiring contracts and generally deemed less valuable players.

Norman Powell, while on a cheaper contract, might just not be that good. He wasn’t a starter on the 2019 champion Raptors or the 2020 scrappy bubble Raptors. Damian Lillard has been fiercely loyal to McCollum their entire Portland tenure but most fans have been clamoring for a different co-star.

McCollum’s elite half-court shot-creator holds more value to other teams than he does the Blazers, and his poor defense exacerbates Lillard’s own.

Assuming the Blazers make the playoffs and their pick conveys to Chicago next summer, they will once again have the ability to trade all future first-round picks. But during the season, Lillard can’t have his cake and eat it too –  he can’t ask for improvements without trading his buddy McCollum.

For a franchise that has only made moves on the margins over Lillard’s entire career, this level of boldness is a big change and makes it unlikely McCollum and Lillard play another playoff series together.