The Portland Trail Blazers trade Anfernee Simons to the Brooklyn Nets
Portland Trail Blazers
The franchise has long failed to put a decent wing rotation around Damian Lillard. This trade gives them two quality forwards who are ready to contribute to a winning right away.
Both Dorian Finney-Smith and Royce O’Neale are versatile defenders who can guard multiple positions, which should take pressure off of Dame and the Blazers’ young guards. Adding a couple of late future first-round picks ensures that Portland keeps building towards the future, even while offloading a promising young talent in Anfernee Simons and adding established veterans around Lillard.
This deal definitely wouldn’t make the Blazers title favorites, but it would be a significant step in the right direction — at least in terms of building around Dame. Portland would be competitive in the immediate present, while also adding assets to take any swings that might open up down the road.
Brooklyn Nets
Despite seemingly losing all leverage in the departures of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, the Brooklyn Nets have managed to quickly launch a promising rebuild around Mikal Bridges, Cameron Johnson, and the other youthful prospects they’ve added since the detonation of their “super team.”
One archetype that they’re severely lacking in is a score-first guard, one who can pressure defenses from all three levels and create offense in a pinch. Basically, they have an Anfernee Simons-shaped hole in their roster. Adding Ant would give them an exciting and competitive young core featuring a lead ball-handler in Simons, two strong two-way wings in Bridges and Johnson, and an All-Defense-caliber big man in Nicolas Claxton.
Losing two late first-rounders is a small price to pay to build a nearly complete lineup of young, but established talent. Shedding Finney-Smith and O’Neal might hurt initially, but it’ll pave the way for their wing prospects, like Noah Clowney, Dariq Whitehead, and Cam Thomas, to garner meaningful playing time and experience.