Portland Trail Blazers: 3 players most likely to be traded in 2018-19
By Ty Delbridge
The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t make too many changes to their roster this summer, but heading into the 2018-19 season there are a few names that could be traded before or at the NBA trade deadline.
The Portland Trail Blazers are not a big free agent market, so for them to bring in talent they have to do it through the NBA Draft and making trades with other teams. The Blazers have been pretty quiet when it comes to trade rumors this summer, and part of that is due to their lack of cap space.
They are about $29.8 million over the cap line and do not have many excellent assets to attach to their bad contracts to get rid of them. They have five expiring contracts, and only one is a core player in Al-Farouq Aminu, so the main part of the team is going to look the same for the next couple seasons unless they make a move. They currently have the youngest roster and the sixth-highest payroll in the league.
Portland finished with the third-best record in the West last season and one of the top records in the entire NBA. Right now, it’s looking like its going to be pretty challenging for them to repeat that success. The top teams in the West were pretty banged up last year, and the Blazers were one of the few teams to keep their core healthy all season. Some say Portland got lucky to win 49 games and be the third seed in the playoffs.
The Western Conference got tougher this offseason with LeBron James joining it and other teams improving their rosters. Portland did not make its team much better to start competing with the Houston Rockets or Golden State Warriors for the Western Conference belt.
It’s time for this organization to shake the roster up a bit. Portland needs to find a way to bring in another player who can help this team take the next step in becoming an elite franchise. They could also look to trade some bad contracts away so they can have more cap space to improve the roster this next summer. Here are three players that could be traded away in 2018-19.