On Wednesday we answered a Blazer’s Edge Mailbag submission about some of the more questionable moves the Portland Trail Blazers have made over the past few years. We provided a couple of examples. Readers filled in plenty more in the comment section.
Though it wasn’t asked explicitly, I thought it would only be fair to point out some of the smart things the Blazers have done over the past five years or so. The scales need to balance at least a little bit after all. So we’ll do the same thing here that we did in Wednesday’s post. I’ll give a couple examples. You share the ones I’ve missed, in your view.
The most obvious smart move the Blazers made was insisting that Phoenix Suns forward Toumani Camara be included in the trade that sent Damian Lillard and center Jusuf Nurkic to the Milwaukee Bucks. Camara was a little-known player at the time, a second-round pick from the 2023 NBA Draft. In Portland, at the price of about $2 million per year, he has blossomed into a member of the All-NBA Defensive Team. He played a team-high 78 games last season and logged more court time than anybody, finishing a full 300 minutes above the next-highest player. That doesn’t just speak of Camara’s endurance, but the trust the coaching staff invests in him. It’s high praise for a second-year player.
The second smartest move is like the first, and wholly predictable. The Blazers got a nice player when they traded Malcolm Brogdon and their second-best pick (of three) in the 2029 NBA Draft for 6’9 forward Deni Avdija. A former lottery pick himself, Avdija proved a jack of all trades, master of most of them for the Blazers. Technically he played small forward, but he guarded positions one through four on the court, played de facto point guard on many offensive possessions, and had some truly standout scoring performances during a successful year. Like Camara, Avdija is on an amazing contract, one which paid him $15 million this past year and declines to $12 million in its final season, 2027-28.
It’s absolutely insane that the Blazers got two (2) quality starters, one of whom is performing at an All-NBA level on defense, for a cost of less than $18 million a year, about the price of a mid-level exception when all is said and done.
The third smart move is speculative and follows along salary lines. Since before they traded Lillard, Portland has been dealing with cap issues. They kept bumping up against the tax threshold for a team that did not merit it. They still haven’t escaped that predicament, but they have managed to increase the talent of the team (post-Lillard), not incur tax penalties, and they’ve even engineered an escape clause: the potential to create usable cap space in the Summer of 2026. Granted, they’d have to jettison veteran players to make it below the cap, but they’ve left themselves an out. It wasn’t easy to move Lillard, get talent, and not take back nasty cap obligations in return. For the most part, they’ve managed that. They have not produced a winning record besides. That’s the big asterisk. But at least they’re coming out of the forest soon and should be able to plot another course forward.
What about you? What do you think the smartest moves of the last 4-5 years have been? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!