Unusually, in an era where the three-future-first-plus-two-swaps “blockbuster” trade offer for superstars has become the norm, the Blazers did not stockpile draft capital when they traded Damian Lillard last season. They instead mostly got back useful players – Deandre Ayton, Jrue Holiday, the latter of which was turned into Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams, etc – leaving themselves in an awkward position of neither bottoming-out nor competing for anything. There are several players on the roster they may be hoping to trade for assets in the near future – Ayton, Williams, Jerami Grant – and who thus count as assets themselves. But for now, Portland is going to go with their new young core of Scoot Henderson, Donovan Clingan and Shaedon Sharpe and keep the rest in flux for later.
Internal draft picks outgoing: Lottery-protected first owed to Chicago through 2028; all but two seconds traded away
External draft picks incoming: 2029 first and two rights to swap, five seconds
Salary cap situation: Little owed after 2026
Traded Player Exceptions:
$8,778,377 – expires 27th September 2024 (Damian Lillard)
$862,382 – expires 1st October 2024 (Jrue Holiday)
$6,875,000 – expires 6th July 2025 (Malcolm Brogdon)
Potentially useful draft rights owned: None
Average age of roster: 24.9 (5th in the NBA)
