Trades the Trail Blazers need to make to keep Damian Lillard in Rip City

Despite Damian Lillard‘s publicly renewed commitment to the Portland Trail Blazers, this is a team faced with win-now pressure.

They’ve had no trouble winning at home — losing just once in ten games at Moda Center — but have a inverted mirror-image 1-9 mark on the road, with the lone win over the league doormat Houston Rockets.

And while their overall 10-10 mark is currently good for sixth in the Western Conference, this team needs to move up a rung or three on the ladder to keep Lillard in town for another season.

The NBA trade market will open up on December 15 when recently signed players become available to be traded, so with this in mind let’s look at two deals the Blazers can make to improve their playoff chances in a stacked West:

Trades the Portland Trail Blazers need to make to keep Damian Lillard in town

Jusuf Nurkic and CJ McCollum have never been confused with Bill Russell or Gary Payton defensively, but they’ll both soon be on the injury report with cervical disc issues from watching opponents blow by them. Covington too, despite his reputation as a defensive stopper.

Unfortunately the Blazers seem to be currently without a general manager, so I’ll step into that void and propose three moves that provide Damian Lillard with the help he needs and give Nassir Little, Anfernee Simons, Larry Nance Jr., and the rest of the Blazers’ reserves a handful more minutes each.

The Portland Trail Blazers land an elite interior defender

The Pacers, currently 13th in the Eastern Conference at 9-12 get $24 million in expiring contracts. The Blazers get significantly better on defense and shorten their rotation by one, making a little room for Little, Nance, and Tony Snell. Turner will fit in fantastically with the free-flowing Portland attack and should be rejuvenated by the challenge.

This move leaves the Blazers a little thin in the frontcourt, but Little, Nance and Cody Zeller have all earned a bump in minutes with their efforts so far this season. If Tony Snell and Greg Brown can step up to absorb the back end of the big man playing time, the Blazers will be just fine.

The Ben Simmons saga comes to an end

Joel Embiid gets the best pick-and-roll partner he has ever seen and some depth help up front, and the Blazers get better defensively at two key spots on the floor and the chance to welcome back the one player who seems to be able to shut down his brother on a consistent basis.

Portland may be the one team that could absorb Simmons’s offensive shortcomings; his ball distribution skills are in fact more valuable to the Blazers than any scoring he might be able to provide, and this deal still leaves them with an abundance of players who can put the biscuit in the basket.

The obstacle to this deal remains Daryl Morey’s outrageous demands for Simmons, but as the deadline approaches, look for those to edge slowly towards reasonable.

Hopefully someone is in charge enough at the Moda Center team offices to make a deal or two, because it’s become clear this team as it’s built is still a step or two behind the Western Conference’s elite.