Portland Trail Blazers
Portland is in a similar situation to the Mavericks in the fact that they have two key talents in Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, yet they still cannot “get over the hump.” There may be a coaching change in Portland at the end of the year and with Norman Powell expected to opt out of his deal and enter NBA free agency, this is the perfect time for Portland to pull off a big deal for Warren.
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This organization needs change and they need another guy who can step up and take a ton of pressure off of the Trail Blazers backcourt, which is what Warren can do offensively. Not to mention, the Blazers are one of the worst defensive teams in the league, which is why adding Warren makes them 10x better than they are now.
While the Trail Blazers are tight on cap space, even with Norman Powell declining his player option for the 2021-22 season, Jusuf Nurkic, Robert Covinton and Derrick Jones Jr. are all making between $9.7M-$12.9M next season, which are exactly the three guys that could be included in a possible trade for TJ Warren.
Not to mention, Anfernee Simons is another attractive name on the Trail Blazers’ roster that could be leveraged in a trade, but Portland does love the upside that Simons possesses as a potential “Sixth-Man type of guard.”
The Trail Blazers need to make a big move in the offseason and going after TJ Warren is certainly a move that would keep them in the conversation for being one of the better teams in the Western Conference.
