The Portland Trail Blazers and Indiana Pacers appear locked in a battle to see who can make more trades before Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET deadline. The two teams are in a dead heat right now at two apiece after Indiana sent Caris LeVert to Cleveland and Domantas Sabonis, Jeremy Lamb, and Justin Holiday to Sacramento, while the Blazers have dealt Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Clippers and CJ McCollum, Larry Nance Jr., and Tony Snell to the Pelicans.
Neither team seems to be totally done, and it’s very possible those most recent trades become three-team deals before they’re made official, as some of the players coming to Portland and Indiana could be redirected elsewhere. After the Blazers traded McCollum, creating a huge amount of cap space and ducking them even further below the tax line, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported they were still planning on trying to make a big move to acquire talent before the deadline passed.
Later in the afternoon, Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer provided some insight on who that player might be, when he reported the Blazers are “engaged” in talks with the Pistons about forward Jerami Grant.
Having already moved Norm Powell and CJ McCollum, Portland is still engaged in conversations with Detroit on acquiring forward Jerami Grant, sources said.
— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) February 8, 2022
Grant has been very available for the last month-plus and just returned from thumb surgery, and it appears the Blazers are looking to completely restructure their roster and created a bit more balance by adding the Pistons’ star wing to go alongside Jusuf Nurkic and Damian Lillard, whenever the star guard returns (either late this season or for next. Grant has one year left at just shy of $21 million on his deal and is extension eligible this summer, and it’s possible Portland has decided to simply rebuy-in with Lillard (also extension eligible) and Grant, while resetting the clock on the repeater tax.
We’ll see if they can get a Grant deal across the finish line, as plenty of other teams have been reported as interested in the Pistons wing, and if they cannot it would be fascinating to see how they pivot as they clearly are intent on making another move.
