As the trade deadline approached, the Pelicans and Blazers made a big deal, with the Blazers packing CJ, Nance Jr., and Snell to the Pelicans, giving them Hart, Satoransky, Alexander Walker, Silva, and several draft picks. The blockbuster deal is also seen as a precursor to the Blazers' complete demolition and reconstruction, but according to ESPN, the Blazers' plan is to build a team around Lillard. After the blockbuster deal is completed, the Blazers will create a 21 million deal exception, and may also create a salary space of 60 million this summer to operate, and most importantly, get a number of draft picks.
The Blazers are currently 11th in the West with a 21-33 record, and only 0.5 wins away from the tenth Pelicans, and there is a good chance that they can enter the playoffs to compete for a ticket to the final train of the playoffs, and the team's goal now is not to break the jar and break the box, but to plan to pursue more talented players. This bizarre operation of the pioneers is indeed somewhat intriguing.
The time goes back to last year's trade deadline, when the Blazers traded the little Gary Trent who had just ushered in the outbreak to the Raptors, thus exchanging it for Norman Powell, and according to the NBA reporter Jake Fischer at the time, the Blazers chose to trade Trent Jr. because it was expected that the latter would get an offer with an average salary of 15 million in the offseason, but at that time his role in the team was only A CJ's substitute, and the Blazers were not willing to pay him such a high-paying contract in the offseason. Thus the choice of trading came to Powell. As a result, Powell's arrival did not stay with the team for a long time, and after "brushing" a career-best 18.7 points this season, he was also packed by the Blazers management with Covington not long ago and sent to the Clippers.
Looking back at Trent Jr., he averaged a career-high 18.3 points per game at the Raptors this season, shooting the fifth-highest 3.2 three-pointers in the league per game, and shooting as high as 40.1%, and even cut 30+ high-scoring performances not long ago, and his salary this season is only 16 million (in last offseason, he reached a 3-year, 52 million extension with the Raptors). If the Blazers management had been willing to be generous and willing to pay a fat contract for Little Trent, the Blazers would not have fallen into the current situation, leaving Lillard alone in the empty house.
In this blockbuster deal with the Pelicans, the Blazers clearly said that they wanted to build a team around Lillard, but what can they actually do? In exchange for Bryso, Winslow, Alexander Walker, Hart, and Satoransky, it seems that they are not a lineup that wants to compete for the championship. For Lillard, a piece of his loyalty is really going to be wrong again. In the past 9 years, Lillard has sent two waves of teammates back and forth (from Matthews, Batum, Aldridge and others to CJ, Powell, Covington and others to the current CJ, Powell and Covington). Now that the quality of the players is getting lower and lower, the Blazers are indeed more like drawing a pie with Lillard than really trying to build a championship-winning lineup for him.
As a regular in the playoffs over the past few years, the Blazers this season are likely to say goodbye to the playoffs, and Lillard can tolerate how long management can do this, which is also a focus of everyone's attention.