Anonymous Scouts Offer Brutally Honest Trail Blazers Takes

Sports Illustrated has again reached out to anonymous scouts in search of “brutally honest” takes on every team. The Portland Trail Blazers’ section features several (not glowing) opinions on the team’s direction, including why the team shouldn’t trade Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum.

On the team’s youth movement:

“The front office has gone too far towards the youth movement. If I were Dame or CJ, I’d be getting frustrated with the strategy. Their time to win is now.”

On trading Damian Lillard or CJ McCollum:

I wouldn’t trade Damian or CJ. Would you rather have Jimmy Butler and his health and attitude questions or have CJ? I’d rather just have CJ and sleep easy at night.

On the team’s current potential:

I don’t want to say it can’t work in the playoffs but they’ve got some real holes in their lineup, guys who don’t bring much to the table offensively. But this isn’t a team that you fear in April and May, even when Damian Lillard has it going.

On Meyers Leonard:

I’ve given up on Meyers Leonard at this point and I bet Portland would have given up on him by now too if they could have. But now Davis is gone, so they have a hole at the fourth big spot. I can’t believe he didn’t block a single shot last year.

You can read more from the anonymous scouts here.