Ranking Blazers' Top Trade Targets After 2026 NBA Playoff Loss
The 2025-26 Portland Trail Blazers were perhaps pluckier than expected.
Plucky only gets you so far in the NBA, though. Point production is the ultimate aim, obviously, and there's only so much that feistiness and hustle can do on that front.
If Portland wants to take the next step, it needs to find some star-level scoring. Maybe Damian Lillard helps with that, but treating a 35-year-old (36 come July) coming off a torn Achilles as an offensive savior lands somewhere between wildly optimistic and downright senseless.
The Blazers, in other words, could go big-bucket hunting this summer. And if they do, the following three net-shredders should top the wish list.
3. Michael Porter Jr., Brooklyn Nets
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The Blazers would love to be an elite three-point shooting team. They just don't have the elite shooters needed to wear that label.
They still fired up threes at a top-five rate, but they connected on them at a bottom-five clip. That's an untenable approach, and one you'd almost guarantee Portland will aim to correct this offseason.
If the Blazers want a high-end splasher, Porter should be on the short list for targets. During the five seasons in which he's made 50-plus appearances, he's only once shot worse than 39 percent from the perimeter. And the one exception was this season, when he shouldered a heavy offensive burden due to the dearth of scoring threats around him.
He wouldn't have that problem in Portland. He could pick and choose his spots like he did during his Denver days, feasting on drive-and-kick chances created by Lillard, Deni Avdija and the Blazers' other downhill attackers. Porter's contributions can be pretty one-note, but when he'd help Portland improve such a glaring weakness, the Blazers might be OK with him operating as a need-filling specialist.
2. Tyler Herro, Miami Heat
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Herro is another option if Portland wants to correct its perimeter problems. What separates him from Porter, though, is that Herro doesn't have to depend on others for his scoring chances.
He has legitimate creation skills in his arsenal. And he's not only finding shots for himself, but he can set the table for his teammates, too. Plus, he's a space-creator even when he doesn't have the ball, because his ignitable shooting is such a constant stress on opposing defenses.
The Blazers need more something-out-of-nothing creators at their disposal. Because, again, relying on Lillard alone to fill that void would be unreasonable. If paired with a second high-end creator, though, he could immediately give Portland a prolific backcourt pairing like it used to have when CJ McCollum slotted alongside him.
Granted, there were defensive limitations with that pairing just like there would be with a Lillard-Herro backcourt. But the Blazers would be better equipped to handle them, since they could deploy Jrue Holiday with either one whenever they needed to extinguish any fires on the defensive end. Portland could even find minutes for all three together when it wanted to embark on a potentially game-changing bucket barrages.
1. Paolo Banchero, Orlando Magic
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Banchero wouldn't help Portland's shooting shortage much, but he could give this team a go-to offensive option who fits the overall timeline.
And that should be the goal here. Not just finding an alpha scorer, but adding one who has a real chance to grow right along with the rest of his core. Because the Blazers' best basketball might still be multiple seasons away, since Deni Advija just started his All-Star ascension, while Shaedon Sharpe's remains on the runway.
Banchero is a walking bucket. He's not always the most efficient scorer, and he doesn't always have the widest gap between assists and turnovers, but he can take over games with his scoring and still manages to (somewhat) share the wealth on offense.
Orlando's inability to build a big winner around him shouldn't give Portland too much pause. If the Blazers can provide him with better spacing and more scoring support—two aims that grow infinitely easier if Lillard hits the ground running—they could help his star shine brighter and greatly benefit from its luminosity.
