NBA Free Agency 2017: 5 teams that should be chasing Paul George
By John Buhler
Portland Trail Blazers
West, Northwest
Sometimes a trade between relative comparables from the other conference can make both teams better. Indiana and the Portland Trail Blazers are stuck in the awful middle of the NBA hierarchy. They are good enough to make the NBA Playoffs most years, but don’t even have a conference finals ceiling.
Portland has a delicious backcourt tandem, at least on offense, in point guard Damian Lillard and shooting guard CJ McCollum. The Trail Blazers thankfully found a budding star down low in center Just Nurkic in the Mason Plumlee deal with the division rival Denver Nuggets. That being said, the Portland backcourt duo of Lillard and McCollum provide essentially matador defense. It’s a crippling flaw in this playoff team’s construction.
What Portland needs is balance out on the wing. Since Lillard isn’t really a tradable player, McCollum could be the guy that goes Indiana’s way for George. McCollum and center Myles Turner could be a solid corps for the Pacers to briefly rebuild around.
The trio of Lillard, George and Nurkic in Portland could make the Trail Blazers a dark horse to reach the Western Conference Finals for a few years depending on matchup. Unless LeBron James plays on your team, that’s all you can really ask from a playoff-caliber team: Just be in the mix in mid-to-late May. Anything can happen.
For Portland to get George, the Trail Blazers have to give up McCollum. There is no way around it. He is an immensely popular player in the Pacific Northwest, but McCollum and Lillard can’t be utterly worthless defensively in the NBA Playoffs. George would provide the balance Portland would need to win multiple playoff series.