The Trail Blazers were hoping to acquire Lauri Markkanen directly from the Bulls, but weren’t willing to part with the draft picks that Chicago wanted, sources tell K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. Instead, they became a third team involved with the trade that sent the restricted free agent to Cleveland.
Portland offered Derrick Jones Jr. and a lottery-protected first-rounder, which it gave up in the three-team version of the trade, but balked when the Bulls asked for an extra second-round pick. Johnson explains that Chicago is trying to restock its draft capital after giving up three first-rounders in recent deals involving Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan. The Bulls may also lose picks if they are found guilty of tampering in an investigation regarding Lonzo Ball.
There’s more from Portland:
- Larry Nance Jr. shared his thoughts about leaving the Cavaliers in a first-person piece on Cleveland.com. Nance says he asked Cleveland general manager Koby Altman to send him to a contender if he could work out a deal that would benefit the team as well. “Going to Portland is something that I am extremely excited about,” Nance wrote. “This is a team that has seen the biggest stages and is hungry for more, and I’m thrilled that they believe I can help them climb higher. This opportunity is one that I’m very ready to take advantage of and I have the Cavs to thank for preparing me for it.”
- Adding Nance makes the Trail Blazers the winner of the three-team deal, contends Nekias Duncan of Basketball News. Duncan calls Nance “destructive” as a help-side defender and says he will help the offense as a screener and cutter.
- In an appearance on J.J. Redick‘s “Old Man and the Three” podcast, CJ McCollum says he feels like he let down backcourt partner Damian Lillard in Game 5 of the playoff series with the Nuggets (hat tip to Marlow Ferguson Jr. of Blazer’s Edge). Lillard had 55 points and 10 assists, but Portland still lost in double overtime. “I have a full summer understanding what we went through, understanding how I performed at the beginning of the season, middle and the end, and I know how I need to perform for us to have success,” McCollum said. “Obviously, I want to win a championship. I have dreams, goals, aspirations, that’s the priority. But for any of that to happen, I need to be the best version of myself, and I have to be a version of myself that most of the world hasn’t seen. You talk about that irrational confidence again, and it’s still here.”
AA finding the value of 2nd round picks gets me hyped up. He found Jokic in round 2 so he knows a player can be a diamond in the rough. As for the tampering, tons of teams do tampering every year. If Bulls are found guilty then that’s ridiculous because I’m convinced that Miami did the same thing to Butler in his S&T deal from Philadelphia.
Bucks got in trouble last year maybe the nba is changing their stance
Chicago main focus was have cap space resign Lavine they star because if he leaves,they get real old Quickly with Derozen.Cleveland has scoring backcourt and big Frontline for defense, need add 3 pt shooting which they did. And Portland needed address defense which they started do so I think trade was good every team.but are u better competition sooner than later
I have no idea what you said.
Glad I wasn’t the only one.
Nance is a “destructive helpside defender,” beautifully said
I am not convinced Portland really wanted Markkanen, otherwise it is hard to believe they would give up on him just to retain a second round pick. Anyway, Nance is a much better fit for their needs.
Right, there is at least one more reason why they might not have pulled the trigger, and that could have been what Lauri wanted in a contract extension.
They might not have felt comfortable trading away those picks for only one year of Markkanen..
Ehhh, I really wanted Lauri to stay, but he wants to be a starter, and the Bulls love them some Patrick Williams too much for that to happen..
Markkanen could have been an excellent scoring option off their bench with Colby White helping run the 2nd unit, but alas..
Now, they really need to find some big depth to backup Vucevic and Williams. Right now, all they have is Simonovic, Bradley, and that’s it…/: That isn’t a contending rotation if you ask me, so AA still has some work to do..
They will pick up either Millsap or Aldridge I think. If not, there are other options out there which they can acquire. They look much better than 1 year ago, and we will see if they are a better team on the court and not just on paper, probably in the first few weeks of the season, as they have a touch schedule early.
Clearly CLE won the trade as they got the best player involved & at a bargain price, so they are the clear winners!
I hope he doesn’t shoot long 2s.
Cleveland only won this trade if you look at it from face value, they have an overabundance of people at pf and center and Lauri himself said he wanted to start on a team, that definately won’t happen. And to me right now larry Nance appears to be the better player between the two taking his defense into account. I hope Cleveland had other deals in the works because this trade didn’t make a whole lot of sense for them especially because they took on a contract as big as Markkanens when they have to pay Collin sexton very soon. To me the bulls won this trade and the blazers second as they would have lost markkanen for nothing but instead got back a young player and draft capital.