The Most Exciting Off-Season the Portland Trail Blazers Ever Had

This off season, the Portland Trail Blazers had no lottery picks, made no blockbuster trades and were unable to sign a big name free agent. Turns out that Allen Crabbe Traded Player Exception didn’t have huge value in the league and while some stars might like Portland’s summer weather, no big stars liked it enough to sign on full time.

Not to take away from the things the team did accomplish--reaching agreement with Jusuf Nurkic on a new four-year deal, bringing in Seth Curry and Nik Stauskas, and drafting some promising players in the draft--but for the second year in a row, this off season has been, well, in my opinion, kinda boring.

My mom used to say “a bored person is a boring person” so rather than dwell on what seems like a dull summer, I’d rather spend time on this thought experiment: what was the most exciting off season the Blazers ever had?

If you listen to the Blazers Edge podcast you know I love chaos so I think the summer of 2015 was the most exciting. Everything hinged on what LaMarcus Aldridge would do. The Blazers had to balance getting ready for his inevitable departure, keeping themselves competitive and building around Damian Lillard. The team made big changes bringing in players via trade and free agency with an active draft night as well.

The moves that summer started shortly after the season ended and went on until mid-July. These included

• Trading Nicolas Batum to Charlotte for Noah Vonleh and Gerald Henderson
• Drafting Rondae Hollis-Jefferson only to turn around and trade him to Brooklyn for Mason Plumlee and Pat Connaughton.
• Signing Al-Farouq Aminu
• Signing Ed Davis
• Trading a 2020 second round draft pick (hey, that’s right around the corner!) for Maurice Harkless

The Blazers are in the midst of their 48th off season, which one do you think was the most exciting? Was it the time they traded six players for Scottie Pippen? Was it the summer they had the number one pick?

Let us know in the comments below!

(This seems like a great time to remind everyone about the epic History of the Trail Blazers series Dave wrote in 2013. Browse through it for inspiration!)