NBA Trade Deadline 2018: 5 DeAndre Jordan trades the Clippers would have to consider

3. Portland gets help for Lillard and McCollum

Trail Blazers get: DeAndre Jordan

Clippers get: Blazers 2018 first round pick, Meyers Leonard, Mo Harkless

Portland is an interesting trade partner for Los Angeles. They are a good team, but not a great one, that is already in danger of becoming very expensive in the near future. Jordan should have some appeal to the Trail Blazers as well, as supporting Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum with rim protection makes sense since Jusuf Nurkic hasn’t had the type of season they had hoped he would have. Jordan’s fit isn’t perfect — playing Jordan and Nurkic together seems difficult — and adding him probably doesn’t make it more likely they win a title. But maybe adding him can give them a better chance of advancing out of the first round.

In this deal, the Clippers will get a first round pick that will give them a chance to nab a young player and a decently valued rotation player in Harkless who is on an affordable contract for the next two seasons. Ditto for Leonard. Neither player the Clippers are getting in return for Jordan are going to help them win right way, but they do add to their collection of solid players that maybe can be a fringe playoff team. The salary on the books beyond this season isn’t ideal, but Portland is limited in that regard.