PORTLAND, Ore. — The NBA trade deadline has come and gone and the Portland Trail Blazers roster looks completely different.
Over the span of about a week, the Blazers traded away three starters in CJ McCollum, Norman Powell and Robert Covington and two reserves in Larry Nance Jr. and Tony Snell. The Blazers also traded two players they acquired in a trade Tuesday, shipping away Nickeil Alexander-Walker to and Tomáš Satoranský in a three-team trade the following day. They also waived injured backup center Cody Zeller.
In return, the Blazers received one high-level rotation player, guard-forward Josh Hart, a rotation player in Justise Winslow, a recent first-round pick in Keon Johnson (21st overall in 2021), two recent second-round draft picks in Elijah Hughes (39th overall in 2020) and Didi Louzada (35th overall in 2019), two players with expiring or non-guaranteed contracts in Eric Bledsoe and Joe Ingles, and four draft picks (one protected first and three seconds). The Blazers also created a $21 million trade exception.
The Blazers can have as much as $35 million in cap space and potentially two lottery picks this summer as they try to build a winning roster around Damian Lillard. As interim general manager Joe Cronin said Thursday during a press conference after the trade deadline, “the hard part begins here.” Can Cronin execute the next step of his plan?
KGW’s Orlando Sanchez and Jared Cowley discuss this and more on the latest episode of KGW’s 3-on-3 Blazers podcast.
LISTEN: 3-on-3 Blazers podcast
