The Portland Trail Blazers shockingly finished with a 36-46 record this season, as many had them competing for the best odds to land the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
However, Portland is far ahead of schedule in their rebuild, and the Trail Blazers could look to make a big splash this offseason. Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley predicts that Utah Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen will head to their division rivals this offseason.
Here’s how Buckley’s trade proposal looks:
Trail Blazers receive: Markkanen
Jazz receive: Jerami Grant, Robert Williams III and two future first-round picks
Grant spent the first two-plus seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers, as he was part of the Sixers teams that were trusting “The Process.”
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He was part of the infamous team that went 10-72 during the 2016 season and was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder the following season.
Grant started to find his footing in OKC before emerging into a key part of the Denver Nuggets’ run to the Western Conference Finals in 2020 and then became a 20-point-per-game scorer with the Detroit Pistons a season after.
The Syracuse product could’ve been a nice fit next to Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons had the Sixers held onto him a bit longer, but now he could be dealt to Utah to help the Trail Blazers take the next step in their rebuild.
“Perhaps Portland’s pluckiness convinces the front office this roster is closer to competitive than people thought coming into the campaign,” Buckley wrote.
“If the Blazers are bullish about their young perimeter players, maybe they’d see a frontcourt upgrade like Markkanen as the missing piece. His two-way talents feel like perfect on-court fits in between Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan,” Buckley concluded.
Markkanen’s three-point shooting and driving abilities would indeed help improve Portland’s offense with Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, and Anfernee Simons also in the mix.
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