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As the 2020 NBA Trade Deadline approaches, the Portland Trail Blazers are neither buyers nor sellers, but are “stuck” in no-man’s-land. This is the conclusion of Keith Smith, writing for Yahoo!Sports in a rundown of prospects for all 29 NBA franchises (and the Sacramento Kings).
Smith defines buyers as teams actively looking to add contributing players, sellers as teams looking to trade away players for future assets. He admits that some teams will waffle between each stance while others will sit out the deadline altogether. Smith places the Blazers in the latter category:
Portland is kind of stuck. It’s fighting for the playoffs, but has so many injuries, it’s hard to predict where this season will go. If the Blazers had confidence that Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins would both be back this season, the Blazers could trade Hassan Whiteside and his expiring contract for help. But if either of the injured big men can’t make it back, then Portland could be left without a viable center option. The Trail Blazers will most likely stand pat at the deadline and do their work over the summer.
The Blazers recently traded Kent Bazemore and Anthony Tolliver for Trevor Ariza, Caleb Swanigan, and Wenyen Gabriel. Center Hassan Whiteside carries an expiring contract and has been suggested as a possible trade prospect for financial or talent reasons.