The Portland Trail Blazers have made a plethora of moves this offseason, all of them working towards the goal of competing sooner rather than later. General Manager Joe Cronin has really leaned into a “defense-first” roster construction; this ethos was echoed in his season-concluding press conference, where he expressed the importance of that aspect.
Shortly thereafter, Cronin pulled the trigger on an Anfernee Simons trade that netted Jrue Holiday in return. Acquiring a plus defender for a negative one fell in line with the stated goal, even if Holiday is a great deal older than Simons. While this trade exponentially shored up Portland’s defensive profile, with it came another problem: a marked dearth of offensive capability.