PORTLAND, Ore. — The NBA trade deadline is three days away and all is quiet around Portland.
The rumor mill will simmer for the next couple days before it really heats up Wednesday night, and then the deadline passes at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday.
In a lengthy trade deadline preview that published Monday morning, ESPN's Zach Lowe forecast a quiet trade deadline for the Blazers. He said because the Blazers already cut their luxury tax bill by several million when they acquired Trevor Ariza, the front office may not feel pressure to make more moves to get under the luxury tax threshold this season.
Lowe said sources indicate the Blazers front office may not be looking to make a significant trade before Thursday.
"The noise on Portland making a big win-now move has cooled, sources say ... Any big deal would have to involve Hassan Whiteside's expiring contract, and Whiteside is giving Portland quality minutes — at a time when they have no other healthy center," Lowe wrote. "They can regroup next season with Lillard, McCollum, Rodney Hood, Zach Collins, Jusuf Nurkic, and all their young players and picks."
Another ESPN reporter mentioned the Blazers in trade deadline conversation Monday morning. On the latest episode of The Hoop Collective podcast, ESPN's Brian Windhorst said the Blazers aren't interested in trading for Cavaliers big man Kevin Love, a player who came up a lot in trade rumors involving Portland earlier this season.
"Obviously people are saying, 'What about Kevin Love? What about Kevin Love?' I don't have up-to-this-very-second information — I wish I did, I wish I had the phones tapped — but the last time I checked in there, I didn't think there was a big appetite to do that deal. They really like Zach Collins there. They really like Nurkic," Windhorst said.
Complicating the trade outlook for the Blazers has been the recent play of Damian Lillard, which defies adequate description, and the improved play of the team, which has won four impressive games in a row and is knocking on the playoff door again. Will that impact how Portland's front office views the trade deadline? Only time will tell, and that time is running short. We'll have an answer to that question by Thursday afternoon.
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In the meantime, here's a look at how the Blazers fared in the latest batch of NBA power rankings:
ESPN: Blazers rank No. 15 (up 4)
What they wrote: Beginning with his career-high 61 points on Jan. 20, Damian Lillard's past six games look like this: 61, 47, 50, 36, 48, 51. With 61 assists. Lillard isn't on another planet right now; he's in another galaxy. Nobody cooks like Lillard. You have to pick him up somewhere between the parking garage and the locker room, or he'll pop you for a 37-footer. But even more than the ridiculous raw numbers, Portland's record in the past six games looks like this: W/L/W/W/W/W. Lillard is doing what it takes to get his team back in the postseason conversation, as the Blazers are now just 1.5 games back of the 8-seed. — Royce Young
The Athletic: Blazers rank No. 14 (up 5)
Editor's note: This week, The Athletic wrote that they'd "go through all of the teams to figure out where they should land with buying or selling" by the trade deadline.
What they wrote: Buy or sell? Buy. I don’t necessarily know how you get the Blazers to buy here, unless moving Hassan Whiteside's expiring contract is attractive for a trade partner. But the Blazers have to capitalize on whatever superpowers Damian Lillard has acquired. Because the way Lillard is going lately, extending this and turning his ridiculous production into victories will move him way up the MVP voting. I'm not sure what it would take to unseat Giannis from going back-to-back on MVP awards. LeBron James has been incredible. James Harden has tailed off, but is also highly capable of going on a run to put him back at the front of the conversation. But what Lillard is doing right now is making everybody wonder just how long he can keep these performances going.
Lillard has 47 points or more in five of his last six games. The one game he didn't hit that mark? He only scored 36 points. During this six-game stretch, Dame has averaged 48.8 points, 10.2 assists, 7.2 rebounds and only 3.0 turnovers. He's taking 28.0 shots per game and has a true shooting of 74.5%. Most important? Lillard’s production has resulted in five victories in six games. Not too long ago, I wrote in this space that Lillard's production was being wasted because he didn’t have enough help this season. Now? The Blazers are 1.5 games out of the eighth seed in the West and Dame is moving his way into MVP voting, even with a losing record so far. — Zach Harper
Sports Illustrated: Blazers rank No. 14 (up 5)
What they wrote: Has Damian Lillard’s hot stretch changed Portland's deadline thinking? What was previously a lost year has become a furious fight for a playoff spot, and the Blazers still need an upgrade at the four. Kevin Love feels like a pipe dream. Danilo Gallinari would be a terrific fit. — Michael Shapiro
CBS Sports: Blazers rank No. 14 (up 6)
What they wrote: There are simply no adjectives to describe what Damian Lillard is doing right now. Over his last six games he's averaging 48.8(!) points, 10.2 assists, and 7.2 rebounds. He's also made over eight 3-pointers per game over that stretch on a ridiculous 57% shooting from beyond the arc — many of them WAY beyond the arc. Most importantly, the Blazers have won five of those six games and are suddenly just a game and a half back of the final Western Conference playoff spot. In case anyone had forgotten, Lillard is proving once again that he is a special, special player. — Colin Ward-Henninger
NBA.com: Blazers rank No. 15 (up 3)
What they wrote: Damian Lillard has had a six-game stretch like we've never seen before, even admitting, "I've never been in this type of rhythm in my life." Really, he was draining 3-pointers over Rudy Gobert standing on the 3-point line like the two-time Defensive Player of the Year was 6-1 instead of 7-1.
Over the last two weeks (it's safe to assume that a second straight Player of the Week award is coming), Lillard has averaged 48.8 points, shooting 52% inside the arc, 57% from beyond it, and 92% at the free throw line. Also...
- The Blazers have gone 4-1 against teams with winning records over the two weeks, having won just five games over the 13 teams that have winning records prior to that.
- Three of the last four opponents have top-10 defenses, and the Blazers have scored 128 points per 100 possessions over those three games.
- Over the two weeks, the Blazers have climbed from 14th to seventh in offensive efficiency and from 11th to ninth place in the Western Conference.
They still have all three meetings with the eighth-place Grizzlies (Lillard vs. Morant feels like a must-see match) remaining. But before they get to the first one (next Wednesday), the Blazers have three more meetings with good teams and a big game against the 10th-place Spurs. — John Schuhmann
Jared Cowley writes about the Trail Blazers and other topics for KGW.com and is the co-host of KGW's 3-on-3 Blazers podcast. Have questions or comments for the 3-on-3 Blazers team? Email them here.
LAST WEEK'S NBA POWER RANKINGS: Blazers' playoff dream still alive thanks to Top-10 offense
