With both the Portland Trail Blazers and Philadelphia 76ers seeing early exits in the NBA postseason this year, there has been a ton of speculation about the futures of both organizations. Philly is definitely closer to winning a title than Portland, but at the end of the day, both teams still have some major flaws to figure out.
The Sixers were the 1-seed in the Eastern Conference this year and Joel Embiid had an MVP-like season, but they were unable to overcome the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals due to numerous reasons. The most notable reason though was the fact that Ben Simmons really struggled to be a factor on the offensive-end of the floor.
For the Blazers, Damian Lillard put together another impressive season and it resulted in him being named to the All-NBA Second Team. Portland went 42-30, earning the 6-seed in the Western Conference, but again, fell short of achieving anything in the playoffs.
This was the eighth consecutive season in which the Trail Blazers went to the playoffs, but the farthest they have ever reached was the Western Conference Finals in 2019, only to get swept by the Golden State Warriors. Success in the postseason has been hard to come by in Portland through the years and this season was yet another example of this.
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While both the 76ers and Trail Blazers both remain playoff contending teams in their respective conferences, they will both need to make some significant roster changes this offseason in order to try and get the most out of their small championship windows. Both organizations will be teams to watch in NBA trade rumors as a result.
Does this mean we could see a major trade in the works between these two teams? Joel Embiid and Damian Lillard are the two stars of these teams and definitely have championship pedigree, but they both need some more help in order to advance further in the playoffs.
In a recent article, Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report outlined a trade scenario in which both the Philadelphia 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers offer up a key talent to try and better themselves. With that said, let’s take a look at a trade package that involves both Ben Simmons and CJ McCollum.