OKC Thunder: 2 multi-team James Harden trades with Boston & Portland

Houston gets CJ McCollum, Blazers get Harden, OKC Thunder gets another pick

Damian Lillard has made the Portland Trail Blazers a consistent threat in the Western Conference and, in turn, a perennial playoff team. Unfortunately, however, they have yet to get over the hump, falling short time and time again under the bright lights of the postseason.

The front office should do everything they can do to keep their franchise point guard happy and, if they believe pairing him with another superstar will do this, they should pounce at the opportunity.

As you would have guessed coming in, any deal that involves James Harden coming to Portland will involve CJ McCollum heading to the Houston Rockets.

The shooting guard would be a nice budding star to slot alongside John Wall in the backcourt, as he has managed to average 22.5 points since becoming a starter in 2015-16, and, in addition, has made 40.3 percent of his threes during this span.

Off to a hot start to 2020-21, McCollum is finding himself posting career numbers of 28 points, 5.7 assists, four rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game on 46 percent shooting from the field and 43 percent shooting from deep.

Alongside him will be the likes of 2017 lottery-pick  Zach Collins, who could prove to be another solid stretch big for this Rockets squad, the sharpshooting third-year wing in Gary Trent Jr., Enes Kanter, and two future first-round picks.

Portland, in turn, would obviously be getting Harden as well as veteran point guard George Hill from the Thunder, who could help space the floor for the team’s second unit as well as give them a sound veteran presence in the locker room for this all-in championship hopeful.

As for the OKC Thunder, they wind up bringing on a young combo guard prospect Anfernee Simons and a future second-round pick, adding to their already illustrious treasure trove of draft assets.

At just 22-years-old, Simmons is young enough to fit the timeline Oklahoma City is on as a solid role player and, with his long and lean stature, fits the prototype that Presti likes to target. Currently, in his third year in the league, the guard is averaging 5.2 points on 35 percent shooting from deep in just 12 minutes of action and has a Player Efficiency Rating of 21.5.

Not all quality moves have to be “massive”, and this could wind up benefiting the Thunder’s long term prospects by adding yet another complementary piece to surround Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with.