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Portland Trail Blazers Receive: Jalen Hood-Schifino, D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent
Los Angeles Lakers Receive: Jerami Grant, Robert Williams III, 2029 first-round pick (top-five protection; turns into second-round pick if not conveyed), 2031 first-round pick (top-five protection; turns into second-round pick if not conveyed)
Excess defines the shape and scope of the Blazers roster. They are hardly world-beaters, but they have so many players worth rolling out, the resulting rotation and direction verges on incoherent.
This isn’t to say they should sell for selling’s sake. This package represents just the opposite. They are taking two useful players who don’t forecast as core members of the program and turning them into placeholders and, most notably, wildly valuable distant first-round picks.
It would not be a stretch to say the Lakers will have a harder time okaying this deal. Jettisoning their only two movable first-round picks without grabbing a patented star may come across as a bummer.
Still, a healthy RW3 provides a major boost to the big-man rotation and defense, both with and without Anthony Davis. And Jerami Grant can wear all sorts of hats on both ends, often to the point he looks like a fringe star.