5 players who should be traded during NBA Draft

No. 1 player who should be traded during NBA Draft: Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard’s unwavering commitment to Portland has been admirable. He wants to bring a championship to the team that drafted him. You can’t knock him for that. Portland’s commitment to Dame has been equally admirable. There aren’t many modern-day examples of team and star being so connected.

That said, the synergy between player and city seems to be unraveling. Dame won’t demand out, that’s evidently not his style, but he will talk about hypothetical trade destinations. The Blazers have a difficult decision with the No. 3 overall pick on Thursday: trade it to fully embrace Lillard’s win-now timeline, or draft your potential next franchise cornerstone in Scoot Henderson.

We can’t fault the Blazers for wanting to compete with the superstar they already have. There’s no guarantee Henderson ever approaches Lillard’s current level of stardom and in a mid-sized market like Portland, it’s hard to acquire talent through free agency. The Blazers would be committing to years of rebuilding with a Lillard trade with no guaranteed better outcome.

Unfortunately, the timelines simply don’t add up. Portland’s next-best players are Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe who are 23 and 20 years old, respectively. Jerami Grant is a free agent, Jusuf Nurkic is on a steep decline, and all of Portland’s recent trade acquisitions — Matisse Thybulle, Cam Reddish, etc. — are blatantly angling for youth. It’s turning into a far less fruitful version of the Warriors’ two timelines approach, with Lillard simply not capable of sustaining a winning team on his own like Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, and Draymond Green.

It’s time for Portland and Lillard to accept reality. The best move for the Blazers is to embrace the inevitable and load up on assets while there’s still time. Lillard is 32 years old coming off the best individual season of his career. His trade value won’t get any higher with age. For Lillard, there’s no harm in embracing the next step either. He should have a significant say in his next home, with teams like Miami or Brooklyn looking more than ready to assemble a contender around him.

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