As a rebuilding team, the Portland Trail Blazers were widely criticized for sacrificing valuable draft capital to land Washington Wizards forward Deni Avdija.
It felt inevitable that they would ultimately move on from Malcolm Brogdon to avoid the luxury tax, but many anticipated that Portland would flip Brogdon for more future assets. Instead, general manager Joe Cronin made an aggresive move, adding Avdija to Portland's young core in exchange for Brogdon, Bub Carrington (14th overall pick), a 2029 first-round pick (second-most favorable), and two second-round picks (2028 and 2030).
Initially, ESPN's Kevin Pelton deemed the trade to be in the Wizards' favor, grading Washington a B+ and Portland a C+.