Christmas Wishes for the Portland Trail Blazers

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to Portland Trail Blazers fans! We have a few posts active today even though the Trail Blazers don’t have a game until tomorrow. The next contest—versus Charlotte Hornets at 7:00 PM, Pacific on Monday—may have to wait, but that’s not going to keep us from chatting about the Blazers today, Christmas or not.

In fact, in honor of the holiday, we’re going to ask a question. If you could give one gift to the Trail Blazers this Christmas, what would it be? You can be as specific or abstract as you wish, but we’re going to refrain from wishing that they could win an NBA Championship via our words. They have to earn that. If a title is your goal, what would you gift them in order to achieve that aim?

I have a couple thoughts, myself.

One is fanciful: a time machine for Shaedon Sharpe. If Portland could transport him three years into the future, they’d either have the best backcourt in the NBA or some mammoth trade chips to balance out their roster without losing talent and quality. Sharpe’s timeline and Damian Lilard’s are on opposite ends of the spectrum. If the Blazers could somehow unite them in Wonder Twins fashion—even if Sharpe could get just a couple years under his belt—Portland might be a force to be reckoned with.

On the more practical side of things, I might wish for the Blazers a logjam-clearing trade. Portland is stuck between two worlds right now, straddling the poles of Lillard’s dominance and being among the Top 5 youngest teams in the League. They haven’t solved the “Win now or win later” conundrum, and they don’t seem to have enough talent to answer, “Both!”

So...I’d wish the Blazers a great trade that got them out of the middle. Either they’d move some of their Swiss Army Knife veterans and some trade ballast for a championship-contention star (hello, Pascal Siakam) or they’d move older players to build up one of the most exciting futures in the league. Either way, that move would clear up ambiguity and position Portland to be great at something instead of good at everything.

What would you wish for the Blazers, if you could pull something out of Santa’s bag? Share in the comment section below, and enjoy the holiday!