MAILBAG: Who Do the Trail Blazers Most Need to Trade This Offseason?

If you missed part one of this week's mailbag—which will continue all week—check it out below.

MAILBAG: Has the Trail Blazers’ Timeline Been Accelerated?

Does a trade for Kevin Durant or Zion Williamson make sense?

The Rose Garden ReportSean Highkin

Here's part two:

Is there any current Blazer player who, if still on the roster at the start of next season, would make you feel that our front office has let down the team?

— Jordan S.

It will be tough for the organization to spin it as a positive if Jerami Grant is still on the team going into training camp.

Last summer, the player they needed to trade was Malcolm Brogdon, to clear up some of the backcourt logjam and give Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Anfernee Simons time to play together and figure out which combinations work.

That same dynamic exists now, a year later, on the wing. The two most sure things on the Blazers' roster are both forwards, in Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara. They were the team's two best players this season and the most clear-cut foundational pieces moving forward. It would be crazy for either one not to start.

Where does that leave the 31-year-old Grant, who is going into year three of a five-year, $160 million contract he signed in the summer of 2023?

"That's something me and Joe [Cronin] and my agent are going to talk about," he said at exit interviews earlier this month. "I don't really know, but I'm open to whatever it is."

By Grant's own admission, he had a down season this year. After shooting over 40 percent from three-point range in his first two seasons in Portland, he dipped to 36.5 percent this year. That's still solid. Much more concerning was the rest of his offense—his efficiency on two-point shots, which has been very good for most of his career, fell below 40 percent for the first time since his rookie season.

The Blazers traded for Grant as a complimentary player to put next to Damian Lillard in 2022, and re-signed him a year later to that $160 million contract before Lillard requested a trade. In 2023-24, his presence was valuable as a steady veteran on a young team that knew it wasn't going to win much, and he wasn't blocking the minutes of anyone that needed to play at power forward.

Things are different now, with Camara and Avdija emerging as the Blazers' two best players. And if they land another frontcourt player in the draft, that's only going to crowd the rotation more. Grant only played in 17 of the Blazers' last 41 games—the 41-game sample the organization is pointing to as a sign of things to come—and didn't play in the final 17 games of the season. He hasn't played past March 12 in any of his three seasons in Portland, due to a combination of injuries real and tanking-related.

Grant is a great guy and well-liked locker-room presence. If he was making half as much money, there would be a good argument to keep him around as a veteran (like, for instance, Matisse Thybulle, who I wouldn't be surprised to see back next year). But the combination of salary, declining production and rotational logjam at his position point to it being the best thing for both sides to find a way to move on this summer.

Given that trading Grant at this point seems like a tall order, do you think that Billups has the stomach to do the obvious thing next year and bring him off the bench? I can't imagine any coach not starting Deni & Toumani, but a reluctance to bring Jerami off the bench could lead to other lineup silliness like starting Toumani at the 2 or Deni at the 5. Forgetting about salaries, I'd be quite happy having Grant in the second unit (certainly versus, say, Murray), but I worry that circumstances point away from that solution for whatever reason.

— Brian R.

If it weren't for salaries and years in the league, it wouldn't even be a discussion: Camara and Avdija should start and Grant should come off the bench. How's that going to land if Grant is still here?

I'll say this: Grant is a pretty go-with-the-flow guy, as far as his personality, so I don't see him making it a problem or distraction if he isn't starting. But there's no way that's what he wants, which is another reason the best solution this summer for all parties is to find a trade.

As for how Billups will approach it, should it come to that? Well, he got his extension in large part because of the support and buy-in he's been able to get from players across the roster. If there was ever a time for him to cash in some of that goodwill and say whatever he needed to say to make a lineup change like that go over the way it needed to, this would be it. That's where he will earn his paycheck.

Which center gets traded?

— Anne M.

Maybe none of them, as wild as that sounds.

Let's take them one by one:

• Donovan Clingan obviously isn't getting traded. He's one of the core parts of the rebuild.
• Deandre Ayton is in the last year of his contract making $35.5 million. I'm not sure how much demand there will be for him in the trade market outside of being a big expiring contract. Clingan is going to be the Blazers' long-term center, but I don't think they view keeping Ayton around in the short term as a negative.
• Robert Williams III has played 26 games over two seasons in Portland. The Blazers love him as a cultural fit and he's gotten trade interest in the past, but they haven't felt like they were getting enough value back to move him. I can't imagine that value will increase after another season where Williams barely played.
• Duop Reath is making close to the minimum as a fourth big. He could have some value, but not enough for it to be a priority to move him this summer unless it's part of a bigger deal.

You never know what deals will fall into your lap in the offseason, or what could cause a team to have interest in a player that you wouldn't expect. But that's where I'd put things now, two months before trades really kick into gear.