Portland Trail Blazers: What should Rip City do with its trade exception?

Option 4: Wait to use it until the trade deadline

This is the most realistic option for the Blazers in terms of using their $12.9 million trade exception. There’s not much the Blazers can do as it stands right now, so why not wait until a player becomes available right before the trade deadline?

Not only does this give the Blazers more time to construct a valid trade proposal, but it also gives them a chance to see what kind of a difference Nurkic makes playing an entire season with the already established core of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. The Blazers would then be better prepared to think about what exactly the team needs moving forward.

And while it’d be great if Portland was able to find a way to add another productive player to fit their system, waiting to decide on how to use the exception would also give Paul Allen time to decide whether the best course of action would be to dump more salary in an attempt to get under the luxury tax threshold.

Who knows? Maybe an incredibly talented player ends up deciding he’s unhappy with his current situation midway through the season and sees the overachieving Blazers as a possible trade destination. Anything can happen.

Next: 2017 NBA free agency: Biggest winners and losers

If the Blazers are unable to make a preseason move that would put them into contention in the West, then the best course of action would be to hold off on using the exception until they’re better equipped to take advantage of the chaos right before the deadline.