The Trail Blazers’ front office has gone about Portland’s rebuild in a somewhat unconventional manner. Two of their building blocks, Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara, were acquired via trade. Instead of prioritizing picks, general manager Joe Cronin tends to target young players who fit their young core. He even included draft capital to land Avdija.
At the time, many questioned why Portland, a rebuilding team, would be attaching valuable draft assets. However, two seasons and one All-Star appearance later, it’s already become apparent that Portland won that trade by a wide margin.
To some extent, they applied this strategy at the trade deadline, including second-round picks to acquire Vit Krejci from the Atlanta Hawks. While we like that move on the margins to get the Blazers the much-needed shooting help, it wasn’t quite bold enough.
The overall deadline was underwhelming for Portland. If they wanted to make a more aggressive trade, surrendering picks to add another piece to their young core, Jared McCain was the one they should’ve been targeting.
Blazers could’ve added Jared McCain to their young core
Oklahoma City packaged a 2026 first-round pick and three future second-round picks to land the Duke product. Daryl Morey even expressed his confidence that the Philadelphia 76ers were “selling high” by giving up on their young guard. As a general rule of thumb, if OKC’s elite front office is interested in your player, you should probably hold onto said player.
Unsurprisingly, he’s already thriving with the Thunder, nearly doubling his scoring average to 11.7 points while shooting 41.9 percent from beyond the arc through 13 games.
This was a No. 16 overall pick in 2024, who, in a way-too-early redraft, likely would have been a top ten selection, given his promising rookie campaign. McCain’s 2025-26 season was derailed by injuries, so in what world would that be considered selling high?
This is exactly the type of bold move Joe Cronin makes
OKC deserves credit as they were able to capitalize on Philadelphia’s impatience. McCain is starting to look like the player he was as a rookie, leaving many to wonder how other teams weren’t able to buy-low on a 22-year-old guard (despite what Morey says). This was recently discussed on The Zach Lowe Show, where Lowe noted that it’s simply a luxury the Thunder can afford.
“I’ve had some people ask me, ‘Where was the rest of the league on Jared McCain? If he was available, no one outbid Oklahoma City?’ Oklahoma City traded legit draft equity, a first-round pick, and some seconds, and I don’t think the Sixers were getting that for a guy who was on the fringes of their rotation and has played like 50 NBA games,” Lowe said. “This is the benefit of being Oklahoma City [because] they don’t care about paying with draft picks. They’re built to overpay with draft picks.”
The Thunder can take a flyer on these potential buy-low opportunities because they have so many picks that they can afford it if it does not work out.
Still, the Blazers need more shooting and playmaking, and would’ve really benefited from McCain’s combo-guard skill set. They may not have the treasure of wealth like the Thunder, but Portland has also quietly stockpiled draft capital, including the Damian Lillard deal with Milwaukee and the acquisition of Orlando’s 2028 first-round pick in their draft-day trade with Memphis.
The Blazers could’ve offered a package centered on the Magic’s first-round pick and been fine with their rebuild had this trade not worked out in their favor. This was an unconventional and out-of-the-blue move that Cronin usually makes, sacrificing picks to gamble on a high-upside talent to add to their young core.
It’s a shame they missed out this time around, as the Western Conference juggernauts only continue to separate themselves from the rest of the pack while the rest of the league stands idle.
