Forget 2022-23, Portland Trail Blazers looking toward future

Over the past month, the Portland Trail Blazers have indicated they are okay with missing the playoffs. Although disappointing, there is a bigger picture.

After hovering around .500 all season, the Portland Trail Blazers trade deadline moves were uninspiring. Additionally, they have avoided adding a name player from the buyout market.

Then Anfernee Simons went down with a knee injury. Since then, it’s looked like the Blazers front office is okay with missing the 2022-23 playoffs. Last week they played against Sacramento without four starters, Simons, Jusuf Nurkic (injury), Damian Lillard (rest), and Jerami Grant (rest).

Big Picture

But maybe there is a bigger play here.

The Simons injury could be a blessing in disguise. His absence gives the Portland Trail Blazers an excuse to experiment and give other youngsters more minutes.

Shaedon Sharpe, Cam Reddish, and Nasir Little will get plenty of time down the stretch. Either Portland gets a better idea of who might be ready for next season’s rotation, or they’ll know who doesn’t belong while simultaneously inflating stats with minutes, making certain players more tradable in the offseason.

Reddish and Matisse Thybulle are cheaper rotational pieces than Josh Hart and Gary Payton II were. If GM Joe Cronin plays this right, he can open up space under the cap and possibly exceed it.

Shuffling the Cards

Drew Eubanks is an unrestricted free agent, and the Portland Blazers could also choose not to pick up team options on Keon Johnson and Kevin Knox. That money should be enough to bring back Grant and re-sign restricted free agents Reddish and Thybulle if that’s what they want to do.

To be fair, Johnson has more trade value than not picking up his option. Little is another player Portland could move in a trade, either to gain cap space or packaged with someone else to upgrade the starting lineup.

Also, the Knicks trade puts Portland in a position to have access to all of their future pics back. If they miss the playoffs and NYK makes it, they can offer Chicago the Knicks’ pick instead, which Chicago probably takes.

With access to four future first round picks and four pick swaps to include with maybe Simons, it greatly boosts their potential to add another star for Lillard to finish his career with.

The Dame Factor

Fans will ask about moving on from Lillard, and it’s an option. But not one likely to happen.

Last year they could have kept CJ McCollum and traded Dame. To a degree, they could do the same regarding Simons.

But unless the Portland Trail Blazers are bringing back an all-star to replace Lillard at a position of need, trading him makes no sense. The vast majority of first round picks don’t go on to stardom.

Besides, Dame isn’t like most stars. There is a certain franchise value to his loyalty that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.

Maybe it makes me biased because I appreciate his loyalty to the Blazers. The team isn’t as far from contending in the West as some think they are. Right now, most of the conference is within a few games of each other. There is opportunity.