NBA Trade Deadline 2018: 5 trades to help teams tank

2. Triple process

Can three teams process in one trade? I was willing to give it a shot.

The Portland Trail Blazers have to be desperate for a top-10 pick. Look at their draft history. It’s filled with miss after miss or guys they traded who went on to be hits elsewhere. The only good draft choices they’ve made in the last ten years are Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. They can’t trade Lillard. They can, but the fanbase would riot. But they can trade everyone else.

The Trail Blazers get out of some bad contracts, take back a bunch of role players, and get Nikola Mirotic to replace Jusuf Nurkic’s inconsistent production. This allows the Blazers to bottom out and get a top-10 pick to pair with Lillard. Sure, McCollum is a top-10 pick, but the McCollum-Lillard pairing has not worked. May as well try something new for the sake of trying something new, right?

Plus, they’re getting nine players. Sometimes, less is more. Other times, nine is a big number.

The Knicks and Bulls don’t exactly get better with this trade, either. Evan Turner is a very Knicks player. Who knows, maybe he turns things around in New York. Everyone laughed at that Tim Hardaway Jr. contract and that’s working out fine for them. I’m sure Turner will work out fine for them as well.

The Bulls get rid of Mirotic, but add three more frontcourt players because why wouldn’t they do that?

Obviously, the Thunder are the only team not trying to get worse here. McCollum is a defensive downgrade from Roberson, but a huge offensive upgrade. And Nurkic is a serviceable backup center.