What this season’s trades mean for the Portland Trail Blazers

CJ McCollum is the latest player to be traded out of the Portland Trail Blazers in a deal with the New Orleans Pelicans that also includes Larry Nance Jr. and Tony Snell. Last week, Norman Powell and Robert Covington were traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. Joining us is Dia Miller, a writer for the Blazer’s Edge and host of the Dave and Dia podcast, to talk about the shakeup of the Blazers’ roster and what it means for the future of the team.

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This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer:

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB. This is Think Out Loud, I’m Dave Miller. In just the last week, the Blazers have traded away some of their most high profile players; on Friday, Norman Powell and Robert Covington were sent to the LA Clippers. On Monday, Larry Nance, Jr.,Tony Snell and CJ McCollum, once a linchpin of the team, were traded to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Blazers have not yet gotten any big names in return. So what is the team’s plan? And is it likely to work? Dia Miller joins us to talk about all of this. She is a Writer for the Blazers’ Edge Website and a Co-host of the Dave and Dia Podcast. Welcome back.

Dia Miller: Thanks. I’m excited to talk a little bit about the team even though it seems like maybe not so exciting time.

Dave Miller: Yeah, maybe not on the court yet, but maybe there’s stuff that’s going to happen, which is why we brought you here. Can you first put the last week in perspective; when you put all of the trades together, how much have the blazers changed over the last five or 6 days?

Dia Miller: It’s dramatic. Already going into this season, there was so much change between the coaches and the GM and you know, the injuries that we’ve had, and things like that, COVID throwing a wrench in there. It’s been a chaotic beginning of the season, but then on top of that now we’ve lost Norman Powell and Robert Covington, two of our starters who started the whole season so far. Then also, we also just lost CJ McCollum, who was drafted with the Blazers and spent the last nine years in Portland. So that is a huge hit. In addition to that they waived Cody Zeller who has been big for us off the bench, obviously before he got injured, and then also Larry Nance Jr is going to the Pelicans in that CJ McCollum deal. Tony Snell is as well, but Larry Nance Jr was another big one. He was a big guy off the bench for us. So it’s a dramatic change. We are not looking at the Blazers that we have been familiar with, at all, right now.

Dave Miller: I want to stick with CJ McCollum for a second, the longest tenured Blazer to leave. What did he mean to the team?

Dia Miller: I think CJ is one of those guys that has been really big for this team in a really quiet way. CJ McCollum is someone who has come in and he’s been number two to Damian Lillard his entire time in Portland and yet he’s continually stepped up and been a huge support, you know, at times where Dame was injured or not playing well and in a slump, CJ McCollum jumped in there and and picked up the slack, he was responsible for some big game winning shots, he was always one of the top scorers on the team, and on top of that he was a staple within the Portland community and a big fan favorite and I know that there’s been a lot of fans yelling for a trade of CJ lately and I think a lot of that is simply because there weren’t a lot of options, but CJ is really well loved, you’re not going to find anyone who just doesn’t like it. He’s well loved and was a significant part of this team for the last nine years.

Dave Miller: What are you most going to remember the Lillard McCollum backcourt for- this two-guard dynamo?

Dia Miller: They were fun to watch, you could tell that they had really good chemistry, they were very clearly friends off the court and that translated on the court. They were just really fun to watch. Neither of them was very defensive, they’re both very clearly offensive players. They’re both smaller guards, you know, there were some similarities to their game, but they were fun to watch together. For me, a big part of the game and a lot of the fun in watching this team specifically, is the interactions you see on the court, when they’re off the court as well and those two just seem to know how to play together. And I think a lot of that was coming into the league around the same time being drafted by the same team, you know, feeling that confidence and knowing that this was their team and the ability to lead that together a lot of the time. And they were fun to watch. It’s a little bit sad to watch that era and I think that’s one of those things that will go down in Blazers’ history and be something that people remember.

Dave Miller: How much have the Blazers gotten so far in return for all of these trades?

Dia Miller: You know, it’s interesting because I think it’s a really hard thing to understand right now. I keep comparing it to one of those little square puzzles where there’s a whole bunch of little squares except for one is empty and you have to move them all around to get them in the right place and sometimes you can get them really close, but there’s one piece in the wrong spot and you have to mix up the whole thing to get it right. And I feel like that’s kind of the place we’re at right now, is the puzzle is all mixed up, but we’re really close to getting it back to being right and we’re watching all these guys who have been key players that they’re sending off and it’s hard to see really what we’re getting in return, It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but they’re not done, they’re not done making moves. This is kind of a middle place where we’re going to see more moves made, we’re going to see more trades made. They’re moving things around so that we have more room financially with cap space and all those kinds of things with contracts, we’re getting rid of some of those big contracts that we have room to sign some other guys, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see them make some big moves. I think what we’re looking at right now as the existing team is not going to be the same even by the trade deadline in two days.

Dave Miller: Blazers’ Twitter yesterday, and the day before, I had a bunch of people pretending to be general managers, which is not unusual…

[Dia, laughing]

Dave Miller: … for professional sports fans talking about trade exceptions and salary cap space. Can you break this down in basic language for us? What can the Blazers do now financially that they couldn’t do a week ago?

Dia Miller: Essentially this stuff is the tricky part. This is the stuff that gets confusing. I am always thankful that this part of it is not my job because we would be in trouble, but, the short version is when, by getting rid of some of these big long term contracts, it gives us room to work with. If we had not made big moves, we would have fallen under what’s called the ‘repeaters tax,’ where we’ve gone over the luxury tax several years in a row and now would be facing an even bigger financial penalty. So we had to get rid of some of the salary that we were carrying. So we’ve got guys that they’ve moved that had…Robert Covington, his contract was gonna expire anyway, so he was a good one to move with CJ, McCollum and Norman Powell. Those were big contracts. This leaves us money to keep guys like Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little who we’re going to have to be looking at their contracts again and giving them more money if they want it. It also gives us the ability to bring in players that are going to cost us a little more than the minimum. If we hadn’t made some of these moves it would have really limited us in who we could bring onto the team because we wouldn’t have been able to afford them, even if we could get up. So now we’re in a place where we have a little bit more room to work with.

Dave Miller: What’s your best understanding of what the front office has in mind right now what their overall plan is?

Dia Miller: It feels to me a little bit like Cronin is having to undo everything that Neil Olshey did. Neil kind of got us into this corner where there wasn’t a lot of space to move, we didn’t have it; everybody was kind of asking for us to build a team that can compete around Damian, you’re looking at this and thinking, okay, but what can we do, to do that? And by the fact that, you know, Dame is probably not going to come back this season, this year, Little is out this season, both of them with injuries, we’re looking at the fact that we are not competing for a championship this season, so we have this year to kind of wiggle things around to do what we can with the contracts again, by getting rid of these, it gives some room. My opinion is where it used to be, that we were going to try to build a team that could win now with Damian Lillard in his prime, it kind of feels to me like now we’re still trying to build a team that will win a championship with Damian Lillard, but maybe that team is going to be a younger team and it’s going to be near the end of Lillard’s career rather than at the prime. It just seems like something’s have to shift. Now, they may pivot and go a completely different direction, but as of right now with what it seems to be gathering on this team, it looks to me like they’re building up younger players that can maybe develop and come in in the next couple of years and really compete for a championship with team.

Dave Miller: The Blazers have had a really hard time making a big free agent deal for a long time now. Do you think that that is the organization’s plan though, to somehow land a big free agent which historically hasn’t really worked?

Dia Miller: Yeah, that wouldn’t surprise me. I think. Woj (Adrian Wojnarowski), tweeted something about that yesterday.

Dave Miller: The ESPN ‘Basketball Insider’ Writer dude?

Dia Miller: Yes, yes, him. He tweeted something about how they were going to move forward and try to acquire somebody like that so that it would not be surprising to me at all, that they would go after somebody in free agency that could really be a big piece next to Damian and then use some of these other pieces to kind of fill around. We have the ability now because of these moves that have been made to give that a shot. So we’ll see. I think that Damian Lillard is always going to be a pull for free agents if we’re in a position where we can sign them.

Dave Miller: If you’re just tuning in. I’m talking right now about the uncertain future of the Portland Trailblazers after they traded away some of their starters. Dia Miller is with us, a writer for Blazers’ Edge and Co-Host of the Dave and Dia Podcast. Dia, you retweeted an interview from a Toronto radio station a couple of days ago. This was on ‘Sportsnet 590,’ that it made the rounds. It was with Gary Trent, Sr, whose son Gary Trent Jr was traded from the Blazers in March of last year, so almost a year ago, but it got a lot of attention just a couple of days ago, let’s have a listen to part of what he said.

Gary Trent, Sr.: My biggest thing when I’m watching my son play is the happiness and joy that he plays with now. You know, my son played with so much pain, and my son was so depressed and so down and so sad in Portland, that watching him play actually used to hurt because I knew my son wasn’t feeling himself, he wasn’t playing his game. He was under a lot of negative pressure from negative statements from front office people and lack of belief and things like that. So my son getting traded was the best thing for his spirit and for his career and and just for his emotional, mental balance, you know, I don’t know if you have children or not, but if you have a child and your child is sick or your child is not feeling well or something that as a parent you could feel that you can see that.

Dave Miller: Dia, what does this say about Neil Olshey, the former general manager?

Dia Miller: That’s pretty bad when you’ve got a guy who was a significant part of the team who was depressed and struggling like that because of comments and things that are being made by the front office. That should never be the case. And you know, the fact is that there were a lot of things that were said by fans about Neil and how – ‘Well, it’s sports, it’s tough, you gotta toughen up blah, blah, blah.’ – But the fact is, people deserve to be treated well and the stuff that happened that, you know, a lot of details haven’t really come out, so we don’t know exactly what happened, but the fact that there were things that were bad enough to fire him over, you know, he wasn’t treating people well and these kinds of stories show that. And that no matter how much money you’re making, no matter what kind of profession you’re in, people deserve to be treated with kindness and with respect and there’s no reason for this kind of treatment. So I’m glad that Gary Trent is in a place where he’s happy at the end of the day, as much of a Blazers fan as I am. You know, these players are people and how they feel and where they’re at matters and so I’m glad that Gary is doing well and I’m glad that we have a GM that seems to really care about the team.

Dave Miller: As we talked about your hope, and the hope of Blazers’ Nation, is that the team will pull some rabbits out of this mixed up hat right now and put together a winning team. But I’m curious – who the traded-away Blazer is that you most wish were still on the team?

Dia Miller: From these recent trades that we just did?

Dave Miller: Well yeah, we have so there are a bunch of players…

Dia Miller: Yeah…

Dave Miller: …recently, I suppose you can go further back, but I’m thinking more recently…

Dia Miller: Yeah, I mean CJ McCollum is a tough one because I just really loved him, and my five year old son was a huge fan of his and and he really convinced my kid to love basketball, you know, he really that was what made him take an interest and it reminds me of being a kid when Clyde Drexler was traded to Houston and how hard that was for me and I’m kind of watching my son go through that, so for that reason it would be CJ. I was really a big Robert Covington fan, I thought he had a lot of potential in Portland. He was fun to watch in Portland. I wish that that had ended differently. I liked all three of these guys so much and I like all of their games and you know, it’s always hard when you’re attached to a player in any way shape or form, to watch them go. But I hope that they’re all really happy on the sheets that they ended up on.

Dave Miller: Dia. Thanks for your time again. I appreciate it.

Dia Miller: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Dave Miller: Dia Miller is a Co-Host of the ‘Dave and Dia’ Podcast, a writer for Blazer’s Edge.