The Philadelphia 76ers could secure the Portland Trail Blazers a future

Things aren’t going particularly well for the Portland Trail Blazers.

Despite cleaning house with a new head coach and a new general manager in the 2021 calendar year, the Blazers have remained woefully trapped in the middle of the Western Conference standings and not just because of a lack of cohesion.

The team lost CJ McCollum for much of 18 games with a freak lung injury/paternity leave, got underwhelming efforts out of could-be contributors like Robert Covington, Larry Nance Jr., and Cody Zeller, and have now lost Nassir Little to a season-ending shoulder tear. While things haven’t been all doom and gloom in the Pacific Northwest, as Anfernee Simons has developed into one of the fieriest young guards in the NBA, even his emergence hasn’t been enough to crack the Blazers’ glass ceiling and finally deliver onto Portland a legit contender capable of going toe-to-toe with the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors of the world.

If the season ended today, the Blazers would have the 10th seed in the West and would face off against the Los Angeles Lakers and then either the Los Angeles Clippers or the Minnesota Timberwolves for a chance to take on the first place Suns in the first round.

If ever there was a season to pack it in, pack it up, and transition from one era to the next, this would surely be the one, but for some reason – namely ticket sales – the team remains firmly committed to squeezing every last bit of juice out of their best player’s prime, even if it means losing out on the sort of “generational” return that could kick a rebuild into overdrive.

Unfortunately, if the Portland Trail Blazers aren’t willing to trade Damian Lillard now, I fear they never will, Philadelphia 76ers fans.

The Philadelphia 76ers will probably never trade for Damian Lillard.

Ben Simmons, Matisse Thybulle, Isaiah Joe, Jaden Springer, Paul Reed, three first-round picks, and four pick swaps; those are all assets the Philadelphia 76ers could conceivably move in a trade for Damian Lillard.

If I was a team with a flashy young combo guard, a horrid defense, and a few solid vets on movable contracts, that would be one heck of an asset pool from which to start a rebuild. Even if all of those players were ultimately included in a deal, or some were swapped out to other teams for more draft picks and/or better scheme fits, it’s still the sort of return that could eventually lead to a contender down the road if the assets are utilized correctly.

I mean, look at the OKC Thunder. They did almost the exact same deal in 2019 when they swapped out Paul George for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks, and the right to swap two more, and at the time, SGA was more of a nice rookie than a guaranteed future max contract player. While only time will tell if Sam Presti is hailed as a genius or chased out of town by a pitchfork-wielding mob like Sam Hinkie Frankenstein’s monster, the team has amassed an unprecedented war chest of assets, a promising young running mate for SGA in Josh Giddey, and the ability to pretty much do whatever they want in future deals.

Is a spot in the Western Conference Play-in Tournament worth passing up that sort of opportunity? Will Damian Lillard’s next contract age like Chris Paul’s or Russell Westbrook’s? In Ben Simmons, the Philadelphia 76ers have a player good enough to be the focal point of a rebuild. Factor in a deep pool of draft picks and a portfolio of a half dozen young players who could be had in a hypothetical deal, and Daryl Morey has the potential to offer up a “rebuild on the fly” kit to a franchise with the foresight to believe that just being good isn’t worth a shot at being great, even if it means saying goodbye to a star player in the process.