NBA Trade Rumors: 2 teams that should trade for Russell Westbrook

NBA Trade Rumors: Could the Portland Trail Blazers trade for Russell Westbrook?

Portland Trail Blazers star, Damian Lillard, has been on record stating that the team doesn’t have enough pieces to compete for a championship currently. After the Denver Nuggets eliminated the team in the 1st round of the 2021 playoffs, Lillard told the media that the team isn’t good enough to compete for a title and obviously needed to make changes.

These statements were made over a month after the closest reporter to Damian Lillard, Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports, stated that the team needed to acquire another superstar to help Lillard in his quest of winning a title.

Unfortunately, the team doesn’t possess the necessary criteria to acquire a top superstar at the moment. For example, teams around the league are prioritizing draft picks in potential superstar trades. The Brooklyn Nets traded four 1st round picks in January to acquire James Harden from the Houston Rockets.

There are multiple teams who have a similar number of draft picks to Portland to compete for the services of a top-level star. For example, Denver, Miami and Portland all own at least three lottery-protected first-round picks over the next five years.

Therefore, the possible trade for a top-level star will come down to the second criteria: what young players do those teams have? Therein lies the problem for Portland, as Miami and Denver have young players who are more recognizable to the public.

For instance, Miami has Precious Achiuwa and Tyler Herro. On the other hand, Denver has Michael Porter Jr. These three players are more recognizable and better than the Blazer’s young players, Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little.

Consequently, the Trailblazers would lose out to other teams. As a result, they need to look for lesser superstars, like Russell Westbrook, who could be acquired for lesser assets. Russell Westbrook has already been traded for two depressed assets.

Westbrook was traded in 2019 for Chris Paul, two 1st round picks, and two pick swaps. The following off-season, he was traded for John Wall and a 1st round pick. Therefore, the cost to acquire Westbrook is significantly less than other stars.

Not only would the cost for Russell Westbrook be within Portland’s range, but he would also excel in Portland’s potent offense. Portland was 8th in pick and rolls, averaging 22.8 per game. They shot 42.1 percent from the field on 18.5 attempts per game, creating 22.9 points.

As I mentioned above, pick and rolls are an area that Westbrook excels. The team could offer CJ McCollum for Russell Westbrook. In conclusion, these are two teams desperate enough to take on Westbrook.