ESPN suggests Blazers move Damian Lillard to Sixers, but not for Ben Simmons
The trade rumors have been swirling the last couple of days as all eyes in the NBA are on the Pacific Northwest. The Portland Trail Blazers seem like a team ready to hit the reset button and blow up their roster.
The team’s dismissal of general manager Neil Olshey contributed to the thought the Blazers are ready to move on from the Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum era. Despite making the playoffs eight years in a row, the Blazers are not a team that is close to truly contending for a title.
That is where the Philadelphia 76ers come in. The Sixers are a team primed to make a big move to put a star next to Joel Embiid. Despite the presence of Embiid, Philadelphia needs more to compete with the Brooklyn Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks in a loaded Eastern Conference.
A trade suggestion from ESPN has the Sixers making a move to acquire Lillard, but it does not include star Ben Simmons as some would think. The deal is Lillard and Cody Zeller to Philadelphia for Tobias Harris, Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, and a 2022 first-round pick that is top-10 protected.
ESPN on the deal:
No, that is not a typo. Yes, we’re suggesting a trade in which the Blazers send Damian Lillard to Philadelphia and do not get All-Star Ben Simmons in return. Although Simmons is still only 25 years old and is one of the top defenders in the league (plus still has four years left on his contract), the goal for Portland should be to retool the roster and not launch a full-scale rebuild centered around Simmons.
The mechanics of this trade would see Portland take Lillard’s $39.3 million salary and break it up into three quality starters who are on controllable contracts: Harris, Maxey and Thybulle. That would give Portland a quality young backcourt with Maxey, Thybulle and Norman Powell, allowing the Blazers to shift gears and also begin looking for a trade partner for C.J. McCollum.
From the 76ers’ perspective, this is a push-your-chips-to-the-middle trade that does not involve multiple first-round picks but rather their depth. The goal following a move like this would be to find a trade partner for Simmons and replenish what was lost in the Lillard trade.
Lillard reportedly wants to play with Simmons, but he wants to do it in Portland. That would mean the Sixers would have to turn their sights to McCollum, which is something the team is not interested in. They want a guy like Lillard when it comes to Simmons’ trade value and have Lillard team with Embiid to make a run at a title.
If Philadelphia can pull a deal like this off for Lillard, then president Daryl Morey will be ecstatic. At this point, though, they will have to wait and see if the star point guard will request that trade, and then it would be off to the races for him.
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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