Portland summer day, a quiet night before a storm?

For the Trail Blazers' trading opportunities in the offseason, we must also put next year's player contracts in to discuss them. Judging from the book lineup, there will not be too many players in the Trail Blazers this summer, but considering the situation next year, the Trail Blazers have a high probability of making the lineup ahead of schedule.

Among this year's free agents, Seble, the most important one, is likely to choose to execute the player option to stay in the team because of his poor attendance rate. Jabarri Walker and Darano Bandon are both on the edge of rotation, and the contract basically does not affect the overall salary. If other trading is not considered, the most likely lineup changes for the Trail Blazers are the 11th pick in the draft, and at most a middle class will be added.

The team has now more than a dozen guarantee contracts, and there are only two positions left on the player list space. However, based on the contract situation of the next year, this offseason will basically be the most suitable time for the Trail Blazers to reorganize their team.

Thanks to the team's large number of rookie contracts and Avdia's high-quality long contracts, if the Trail Blazers choose to keep multiple players in the team until they finally become free agents, they can free up at most one max contract or more in their salary space next year. Or if you deal with Grant in the offseason, your salary space can even continue to increase.

The Trail Blazers have the opportunity to sign a maximum-paid player while holding Sharp's right to renew his contract, but this also means that Ayton, Simmons Jr., Rowe and others are likely to leave the team as free agents, and the team basically won't get any bargaining chip returns from them.

This is the first question for the Trail Blazers during the offseason. Will they choose to participate in the free market this year?

First of all, the situation in the NBA trading market is completely different from before under the new version of the labor-management agreement. Big-name players often choose to negotiate a contract renewal with their parent team in advance before entering the free market. Therefore, many big-name free-agent players often sign contracts with their parents.

Another thing, considering that the Trail Blazers are a small market and the proportion of tax pressure, it has always been difficult for them to sign free agents. A detailed account of the last time the Blazers signed a contract with a salary space directly in the free market, it can be traced back to Evan Turner in 2016, and since then, the Blazers have never used the salary space to sign players naked.

There are naturally the trading mistakes of the former general manager, but from another perspective, it may also be the lesson of the failure brought by signing Turner in 2016, which led to this small team not daring to easily chase big-name stars in the free market.

Referring to the usual practice, the Trail Blazers have always liked the most, mainly focusing on the renewal direction, and for other people who are about to become free agents, they start trading in advance to exchange for chips. Judging from this idea, the Trail Blazers may have many problems facing this offseason.

Combined with the results of this season, although it is getting better, the Trail Blazers are essentially a young team that is a long way from the playoffs, even though the team found a young core five-man in the last stage of this season.

The combination of Avdia + Kamara + Henderson + Sharp + Klingen seems to be able to match five positions, but there are still many variables. The team's backcourt offense is not stable enough, the lack of rebounders in the frontcourt, Klingen's playing time limitations, etc. These are all issues that the Trail Blazers urgently need to solve at present.

With the lineup basically unchanged, what do the Trail Blazers need?

Although the team strives to train young defenders, it is undeniable that the backcourt is still the most unstable position for the Trail Blazers today. On the one hand, it is lack of projection ability, and on the other hand, it is lack of a truly stable commander to lead the team. The performance of the frontcourt double strikers this season is remarkable, but in essence they are more inclined toward peripheral players.

In addition, facing the Western Conference where the penalty area is increasingly powerful, the Trail Blazers need a confrontational front line that can handle and top up, and need to have certain maneuverability to make up for Klingen's defensive range. In addition, the most important point is the peripheral projection shortcomings that have always plagued the pioneers.

In summary, next season, under the route of young players as the main body of training, it is hard to imagine that the Trail Blazers will suddenly make a stud deal to chase superstars, and it is unlikely that the team building route will suddenly change. Therefore, the main target of the Trail Blazers this summer is likely to move around the direction of supporting players.

Reference standards, it is mainly players who are after the third person in the field, or even simple 3D characters. This type of player can basically get it at no cost, and the scope of reinforcement is also very large.

In addition to the free market, it can also be obtained through transactions, and even drafts. It is the route for the Blazers to acquire combat power. The most important thing is the team's management's vision of selecting people. Considering this part, the Trail Blazers' trading plan is likely to start from the draft. Of course, the premise is that they really plan to start strengthening in the offseason.

Compared with purposeful reinforcement, what is really worth worrying about is whether the Trail Blazers will have another offseason with heavy thunder and little rain.

The transaction deadline has been ineffective for two consecutive years. Are the Trail Blazers really waiting for the best trading opportunity mentioned by General Manager Cronin? Or is it just that they simply don’t want to sell players?

Although there have been some improvements this season, the overall performance of the Trail Blazers is still full of problems, but even so, the team's general manager Cronin and coach Billups have both renewed their contracts. From the perspective of fans, this is really difficult to understand.

And if you want to give an explanation for this issue, perhaps the most likely news of the recent team sale. In the will of former team owner Paul Allen, it was mentioned that the Blazers would openly look for buyers when the time was right, and now it seems that the right time to trade the team is here to trade..

The inaction to the team may be just the brief tranquility before the storm.