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Trail Blazers Trade Rumors: Raptors' OG Anunoby Targeted by POR; Offering No. 7 Pick
June 23, 2022
The Portland Trail Blazers may not be done wheeling and dealing after ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported they acquired forward Jerami Grant in a deal with the Detroit Pistons.
According to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Portland is also "in pursuit of Toronto Raptors forward OG Anunoby with the No. 7 pick in Thursday’s draft in play."
Portland isn't far removed from being a contender considering it made the Western Conference Finals in 2019 and reached the playoffs eight seasons in a row prior to the 2021-22 campaign.
However, it went just 27-55 last season and traded away CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans. Combined with Damian Lillard's injury concerns that limited him to just 29 games, the Trail Blazers were consistently outmatched throughout the season.
Acquiring Grant is a step toward returning to Western Conference contention seeing how he is a scoring threat in the frontcourt who averaged 22.3 points per game in 2020-21 and 19.2 points a night in 2021-22.
However, the team will need much more to realistically compete with the Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and others, and Anunoby is someone who would make an impact on both ends of the floor with the versatility to defend multiple positions and take some of the pressure off Lillard.
The 2017 first-round pick has been with the Raptors his entire career and helped them win the 2019 title.
He averaged a career-best 17.1 points to go with 5.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.5 steals per game last season. The Indiana University product is also a career 37.2 percent three-point shooter, which would be important when defenders collapse on Lillard and Grant.
Anunoby is still just 24 years old and seems to be entering his prime, but the Trail Blazers are apparently hoping they can convince the Raptors to move on for a top-10 pick and perhaps more.