Does this trade make sense for the Portland Trail Blazers?
With the Portland Trail Blazers likely to rebuild in the near future, bringing in Coby White is something that could be intriguing to them. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum do not seem like they are going anywhere anytime soon, but White provides leverage behind them in their rotations and could also be a future asset the Blazers leverage during their rebuild.
Troy Brown Jr. would be nothing more than a role player in the final year of his contract for Portland, but by sending Robert Covington to the Chicago Bulls in this trade, the Portland Trail Blazers would save themselves $1.9M in salaries this season, resulting in them moving below the tax line.
This is extremely important for the Trail Blazers to try and do ahead of the trade deadline because there is no reason they should be paying taxes on a team that is not a contender in the Western Conference.
At best, Portland will be able to find some late season success and move up in the 7-seed or 8-seed region, but they are no longer a playoff threat and need to go through some kind of a rebuild.
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Trading away not only Robert Covington, but possibly Jusuf Nurkic and others too in order to rebuild around Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum seems like the route the Blazers’ front-office is planning on going.