Getty Images- Abbie Parr
The Portland Trail Blazers are shipping CJ McCollum, Larry Nance, and Tony Snell to the New Orleans Pelicans for Josh Hart, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Tomas Satoransky, Didi Louzada, a 2022 protected first-round pick, and two second round picks.
After almost 9 years together, the star guard duo of CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard has seen its final days behind them. In a left-field trade, the Trail Blazers take in a less than desirable haul for CJ McCollum, amalgamating a new form of a rebuild around Damian Lillard.
It was clear in the spawn of Lillard’s abdomen surgery that may sideline for the rest of the season tagged with the team’s playoff hopes being all but over, Portland was overdue in making some major roster changes, but the direction they took them in have been questionable.
In a series of trades that saw the Blazers ship off first-round picks like hotcakes, they then flipped all three of the players they took in for less valuable assets just two years later. In the fall of 2020, the Trail Blazers shipped 2 first-round picks to Houston in exchange for Robert Covington, and later that season, traded Gary Trent Jr., who has been emerging into a star in his own right in Toronto, for Norman Powell. For these two, the Blazers got Justise Winslow, who’s now on his fourth team in two years and G-League rookie Keon Johnson to show for it. Larry Nance was part of a three-team trade that saw the Trail Blazers ship a first-round pick to Cleveland, and he was now essentially included as filler in an already lopsided trade in New Orleans’ favor.
Aside from the aforementioned Damian Lillard, who is missing significant time due to injury, and Jusuf Nurkic, who has had an inconsistent year on the court, the Trail Blazers’ remaining core pieces for this season are reduced to mostly prospects.
The emergence of Anfernee Simons in the wake of Lillard’s absence has been a pleasant surprise for the franchise, but some may question the validity of his scoring when it comes time for the team to start playing meaningful games again. The other in-house asset the Blazers have been developing is combo-forward Nassir Little who has had a very nice year in his own right. Aside from these two the roster is barren of any long-term pieces.
Josh Hart was the centerpiece for the deal on the Pelicans side. The 26-year old undersized “big” has been playing pseudo-power forward for the Pelicans for a couple of years now, impressively racking in almost 8 rebounds per contest over the last two seasons with the Pelicans. Hart adds defensive tenacity the Trail Blazers lost out on when they traded away Robert Covington a few days earlier, and now Larry Nance Jr. in this trade. Hart is thought of more as a complementary piece to an already good roster, and hasn’t proven himself to be a single source needle-mover thus far in his career.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker is a glimmer of hope in this trade for the Trail Blazers, showing off some microwave scoring off the bench for the Pelicans. The tweener-guard from Virginia Tech has yet to catch his stride consistently though, putting up a career high 12.8 points per game on a measly -10 relative true shooting percentage. It’s unlikely Tomas Satoransky nor Didi Louzada will have a meaningful role for the team.
Pastures are finally beginning to look greener in New Orleans, with their surplus of trades and various draft picks over the last 3 years. Not with quite the magnitude the Anthony Davis trade had in the summer of 2019, this current deal circled on CJ McCollum is still a franchise altering move for the team that is currently fighting for a playoff spot.
In the prolonged absence of Zion Williamson, the Pelicans need to beef up their depth and add another source of scoring to pair alongside one-time all star Brandon Ingram. McCollum’s lack of playmaking ability for a smaller guard has been overshadowed by his innate skill to create easy shots for himself has proven itself to be a good initiation of offense in the playoffs.
CJ McCollum’s ability to create from the outside-in is a match made in heaven for grouping him alongside Zion who destroys anything within 5 feet of the rim, and Brandon Ingram who works well off the ball, being 80th percentile scoring off screens in the league according to Second Spectrum. Larry Nance Jr. slots in with this roster seamlessly, as any team can use a player with his defensive versatility.
The Pelicans were far from a full rebuild due to them already having two all-star caliber players under the age of 25, but with the addition of Jonas Valanciunas this past offseason, and now CJ McCollum and Larry Nance, it’s likelier to be seeing their names in the playoffs than the Portland Trail Blazers who are all but one superstar point guard away from a complete rebuild.
