Grade The Trade: Damian Lillard teams up with Anthony Edwards, Wolves

The verdict

In a vacuum, it’s easy to see why such a swap would make sense. However, there’s one big flaw in all this – and it’s the fact that the Wolves don’t have the necessary draft picks to keep the Blazers interested in the offer. If they had 2-3 tradable future first-round picks, I believe this would be a different story. However, unless Portland believes Karl-Anthony Towns would have a reawakening and still has another gear in his game, I have a hard time believing they’ll be willing to take on his contract at this point in his career.

And without 2-3 future first-round picks to act as an airbag to a potential bad 1-for-1 swap, this is the type of deal that comes with way more risk than Portland needs as they make the pivot toward a rebuilding team.

Grade: C+

Again, this is more of an NBA 2K type of trade. It sounds nice in theory and the idea of KAT on the Blazers does seem fun and entertaining. That said, I don’t believe that it makes that much sense in the long run for the rebuilding Blazers.