When Portland reportedly traded Anfernee Simons (& two 2nd round picks) to Boston for Jrue Holiday, I was incensed! And initially, I even misread the report and thought the Celtics were sending the picks the Trail Blazers’ way. So, I was livid, then the trade went from bad to worse.
[At first glance, it was as if my mind couldn’t conceive of the Blazers trading Anfernee and draft picks. Not when the expectation long had been getting at least one 1st round pick in any trade of Simons.]
When Portland traded back from 11th to 16th in the draft for a 2028 1st round pick, I was pumped! This was a great bit of business. But then, at 16, they selected Yang Hansen from China, and I went from excited to befuddled.
When the Trail Blazers finally parted ways with DeAndre Ayton, I was elated! That they gave up on trading him and just bought him out was reassuring in the best possible way.
And finally, when the Blazers signed Damian Lillard to a 2-year, $42 million free-agent deal (that included a player option in the 2nd year and a no-trade clause), I was mystified! Did they not realize he just tore his Achilles tendon in April!?
What a roller coaster!
When you start with incensed/livid, befuddled, and mystified with a sprinkling of elation and excitement, you don’t expect to be oddly satisfied by the end of the ride. And yet, when I look at the Portland Trail Blazers offseason wholistically, count me intrigued.
Through this lens of totality, let’s now look back at each of these transactions:
Celtics trading Jrue Holiday to Trail Blazers, sources say
I love me some Jrue Holiday. Or is it loved? I guess we’ll see. It will depend on which version of Holiday Portland gets. Acquired to be their lead guard, he is coming off [apart from his rookie year]a career low season as a playmaker (3.9 ast) and scorer (11.1 pts), and he is 35.
Anfernee Simons also had a somewhat disappointing season last year, but bested Jrue in both categories – 19.3 pts & 4.8 ast, and is 26. He also will make $25 million this season in the last year of his contract, while Jrue Holiday will make $32.4 million this year, $34.8 million next year, and $37.2 million in 27-28.
So, what am I missing?
Is Holiday a better defender, even at 35, inarguably. A better cultural tone setter/locker room presence, more than likely. A winner, without question. But even conceding all of this, I’m on record as being a strong proponent of Anfernee’s:
Simons Says Give Penny A Chance…
Portland Trail Blazers Pass the Test They Were Failing—Thunder Still the Standard: The Alpha 1b.
Trading a young, still ascending, and less expensive player in Simons for an aging vet in Jrue, who just might be past his prime, didn’t make any sense to me.
A trade of this nature certainly makes a lot more sense if the player of Jrue Holiday’s ilk is intended to be the last piece of a championship-contending puzzle. But the stated goal of this year’s Trail Blazers team is to compete for a spot in the Play-In, a far cry from the NBA Finals.
“Things That Make You Go Hmmmm….”, indeed.
But then, the most wonderful thing happened! The Blazers agreed to a buyout with DeAndre Ayton. Suddenly, the organization’s desire to build a championship culture, with Holiday as its centerpiece, seemed much more earnest. Not sure what the opposite of earnest is, but it likely would be a very fitting descriptor of Ayton.
(And it sure is! I looked up antonyms for earnest, and ‘halfhearted’ leapt off the page. Domin-[Not Often]-Ayton = Halfhearted, it’s simple arithmetic really. But I digress…)
Given the shocking development on the Chauncey Billups front (How the Blazers, NBA are grappling with Chauncey Billups’ arrest), perhaps Dr. Jrue is just the person to lead the team through this quagmire, thereby making this an exceptionally fortuitous trade. We’ll see if he can help keep this train on its tracks.
Plus, our Portland Trail Blazers were able to get out of sending the aforementioned 2nd round picks to Boston – Blazers, Celtics trade altered to swap of Holiday, Simons.
Now you can see how this trade has grown on me.
All that’s left for Jrue Holiday to do now is go the way of Chris Paul in his one year in OKC. Coming off a down year in his 2nd season in Houston (career lows of 15.6 pts & 41.9% shooting), the Point Guard rebuilt his trade value for the Thunder to the tune of 17.6 pts on 48.9% shooting, 6.7 ast, 5 reb, 1.6 3pm, & 1.6 stl.
This is a great barometer to measure Holiday’s on-court success this season. And the early returns are promising as he’s checking all the Point God boxes. Through 12 games, he’s averaging 16.7 pts on 44.6% shooting, 8.3 ast, 5.3 reb, 2.6 3pm, & 1.6 stl. Eerily similar to Paul’s lone season in Oklahoma City.
Let’s hope Jrue can stay on the floor (he’s been out with a calf injury since 11/14) and keep this locker room together!
Portland Trail Blazers trade down, then draft Yang Hansen with the 16th pick in the 2025 NBA draft
With the likes of Kasparas Jakucionis (10th/7th), Joan Beringer (15th/13th), and Danny Wolf (25th/14th) still on the board, all 3 being inside the Top-15 of ESPN or The Athletic’s respective Pre-Draft Rankings, Portland’s pick at 16 was shaping up to be a no-brainer.
Instead, the Trail Blazers opted for Yang Hansen (I’m sorry, who!?), ranked 35th by ESPN and 48th by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic. Draft prognosticators the world over were shocked, stunned, and stupefied! (Here’s looking at you, Wheels!) So, at least we had good company here in Rip City.
I then did what I suspect most Blazers fans did: I sought out highlights in hopes of making some sense of this puzzling pick.
Sadly, this is all I could find: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Mx8oPKcStAc
This was no different than if I had watched ‘highlights’ of a grown-ass man taking it to a bunch of middle-schoolers. Count me unimpressed and even a little concerned. Had the Portland Trail Blazers just completely blown it in the 2025 NBA draft?
Then this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGgRh2gJir8
At least I had some hope now, but many-a-player have stood out in Summer League, only to disappear when the real basketball starts.
However unconvincing Yang’s Summer League performance may have been, he really started to make a believer out of me in the preseason.
See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGgRh2gJir8
I’m now convinced Hansen has what it takes to be Our-Vydas.
No, “…not [prime pre-injury]Arvydas, …[or]your Vydas, …Arvydas!”
Yang Hansen’s skill level [and physical limitations]remind me of Arvydas Sabonis, but only as a Portland Trail Blazer. Our-Vydas was a soon-to-be 32-year-old rookie who had suffered multiple major injuries, including two Achilles tendon ruptures, severe foot and ankle problems, and chronic knee and groin issues.
And yet, despite it all, he finished his NBA career (7 seasons total) with averages of 12 pts, 7.3 reb, 2.1 ast, 1.1 blk, & 0.8 stl. I believe Sabonis’ best season (1997-98) is Yang’s likely ceiling: 16 pts, 10 reb, 3 ast, 1.1 blk, & 0.9 stl.
If Hansen goes the way of Arvydas, with his skill level overcoming his physical limitations, he will be the steal of the draft. It’s going to take Yang Hansen some time, though (he’s already been assigned multiple times to the team’s G-League affiliate – The Rip City Remix), and a good bill of health.
A 2028 1st round pick, and the steal of the draft(?), not too shabby!
Blazers’ Ayton to become free agent after buyout
While I am a fan of Anfernee ‘Penny’ Simons, DeAndre Ayton, not so much:
A Most Excellent Trade Proposal For The Portland Trail Blazers And The Purple And Gold…
It’s Trading Season For The Portland Trail Blazers – Wait, What!?
I even just math-ed this [Domin-(Not Often)-Ayton = Halfhearted], so let’s not belabor the point.
Onward and upward, sans DeAndre, is a given, nuff said!
Damian Lillard reaches deal to return to Trail Blazers
Damian Lillard – glorified cheerleader!?
This is what Portland is paying for, at least for this season, as Dame will be out the whole year rehabilitating from his torn Achilles. And even next season is a bit of a question mark, with the reasons running deeper than the most obvious, his career-altering injury.
Lillard has a player option for the 2026-27 season, and I can only think of one reason for this – he intends to opt out and extort the Trail Blazers for an extension, when he will be a 36-year-old with a surgically repaired Achilles tendon. And the team will have no idea whether Dame Time has run its course, as he has not played in a real NBA game before.
Plus, he has a unicorn clause in his contract; he can’t be traded. He is 1 of only 2 players to have a no-trade clause, LeBron being the other.
So, how did a player coming off a devastating injury, particularly for basketball players, end up with all the leverage? Didn’t Damian Lillard demand to be traded?
I’m all for a reunion (even if all it means is Dame retires a Blazer), but I don’t understand all the bending over backwards. It’s an honor and privilege to play basketball in Rip City after all, and it’s sad, regrettable even, that it took Lillard leaving to figure this out.
Thankfully, the end of this story has yet to be written. I’m hoping for the happiest of endings, Damian Lillard having a hand in returning the championship to Portland—the actual ending, though, will lie somewhere between this and how Brandon Roy’s career ended. The noticeable difference is that all signs point to Dame Time ending as a Trailblazer and not in the bitter cold of Minnesota, where B-Roy’s career went to die.
I’ll be rooting for the storybook ending!
Well, looky here!
2-Star Blazers?
Deni Avdija is well on his way to All-Stardom! He’s picked up where he left off last season, when (over his final 20 games) he averaged 23.3 points on 50.8% shooting, including 2.4 3pm on a 3P% of 41.7%, 9.7 reb, & 5.2 ast. Twenty games into this season, Deni is averaging 25.8 pts on 47.6% shooting, including 2.6 3pm on a 3P% of 37.8%, 7.1 reb, & 5.8 ast.
In nearly the equivalent of half an NBA season (40 total games), Avdija has made the strongest of cases for being an All-Star. In short, he’s gone bananas, with averages of 24.5 pts on 49.1% shooting, including 2.5 3pm on a 3P% of 39.6%, 8.4 reb, & 5.5 ast. Even the league office has taken notice, putting together this early-season mixtape: https://x.com/NBA/status/1993776774417690687.
And in true mixtape fashion, Shaedon Sharpe is having his own breakout this year, just as Deni Avdija did at the end of last season. Through his first 15 games, the Human Highlight is averaging 21.8 pts on 44.1% shooting, including 1.7 3pm on a 3P% of only 25%, 5 reb, 2.1 ast, & (most impressively) 1.3 stl. It would seem that Shaedon is getting done on both ends in his Senior Year (his 4th in the NBA).
If Sharpe can stay healthy, it is only a matter of time before the Portland Trail Blazers will be able to check the 2-Star box. Something they haven’t been able to do since the 2014-15 season, when both Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge were selected as All-Stars. This would be step 1 on their championship quest, with step 2 being having two All-NBA players, which hasn’t happened since the prior season (13-14), with Dame and LA repping Portland on the Third Team.
But…
To Be the Best, You Have to Beat the Best
On Nov. 5th, in what I believe was their most impressive win of the year, in only their 8th game, the Trail Blazers exorcised demons from seasons past by beating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder 121-119. Oklahoma City hasn’t lost since and even exacted some revenge on the Blazers on Nov. 23rd, whipping them badly, 122-95.
They obviously took their only loss personally and wanted to remind the Portland Trail Blazers they still had their number. Before getting beaten by the Trail Blazers, OKC had won 16 in a row. Meaning, the Blazers hadn’t won a game against the Thunder in 4 years.
With this one win, however, proof of concept was provided. When at their best, the Portland Trailblazers can compete with anyone, even the Oklahoma City Thunder. Which, they re-proved in their most recent matchup on Nov. 30th, a narrow loss (123-115).
Is Portland a championship contender? Of course not! But with the likes of Jrue Holiday, Deni Avdija, and Shaedon Sharpe leading the charge, the Play-In Tournament is within their grasp. And maybe, just maybe, this season will be the first chapter of the storybook ending I’m rooting for – Damian Lillard riding off into the sunset as an NBA champion, serving as the Grand Marshall of the championship parade through Rip City.
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