The Portland Trail Blazers are officially trading their long-time guard CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans.
It was reported earlier in the week that either CJ, DeAaron Fox, or Eric Gordon were some of the Pels targets near the deadline.
None other than the all-knowing Woj tweeted out the news this morning;
Full trade, per sources:
Blazers: Josh Hart, Tomas Satoransky, Nickeil Walker-Alexander, Didi Louzada, 2022 protected first-round pick, two second-round picks.
Pelicans: CJ McCollum, Larry Nance, Tony Snell.— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 8, 2022
What a way to start off this Tuesday morning with some trade news. The trade deadline has got to be the greatest time of the year, next to Christmas of course.
But wow, there is a lot to unpack here…
First of all, this is the second questionable play by Portland in the trade market after trading away Norman Powell and Robert Covington for practically nothing in return.
The Damian Lillard / CJ McCollum tandem is no more.
Portland is officially electing for a full reshaping of their roster “centered around Dame” (not sure what Dame is going to think about that) with hopes of signing some players this off-season once Dame can return healthy.
This is not a good day for Portland fans. Dame will most likely be gone this summer. Unless he is dealt for Ben Simmons by the deadline? Just a thought.
The Trail Blazers get Josh Hart, a solid role player and defender who will be helpful wherever he goes. They also get NAW who does have some potential to become something, but has yet to show any true promise. And then they get a protected first-round pick that they only receive if it’s between 5-14, otherwise, they don’t get the pick.
I am surprised the Trail Blazers were willing to let go of a player like CJ for this return especially since they just signed him to a contract in 2019.
The New Orleans Pelicans without a doubt came out on top on this deal.
Getting CJ McCollum is one of the best things that could have happened for this organization.
CJ has been a proven 20 PPG scorer for the past 6 seasons. McCollum can do it all. He has one of the deepest bags in the league, providing a variety of different ways to score and play make, and he can come up big in the clutch.
McCollum still has two years remaining on his contract and he should be the perfect fit alongside Zion and the roster in NOLA. Devonte Graham has a game similar to Damian Lillard, a Dame-lite if you will, so you can see how CJ could slide in nicely in the other guard position.
The Pelicans are receiving a gift in McCollum that will be important not only for the present moment but for the future of the franchise and determining how everything will play out when Zion is able to make a return.
The Pelicans also receive athletic big Larry Nance who can come in and provide some minutes off the bench.
This trade will 100% push the Pelicans to make the play-in tourney if not even further up the Western Conference rankings if Zion is able to return sometime in March.
