The Portland Trail Blazers are rumored to be done wheeling and dealing for the Summer of 2026, but it’s hard to miss the fact that their roster is imbalanced, bloated with guards, impoverished in the forward department, heavy with scorers and ball-dominant players.
I don’t think the Blazers would mind going into the season with their current projected rotation, but I don’t think it’s set in stone either. If the opportunity presents itself, I’d expect Portland to be open to a deal.
With the news that the Philadelphia 76ers signed LeBron James to a two-year contract, the opportunity may soon present itself.
Three teams—the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, and Miami Heat—found themselves on the outside staring in at the LeBron Sweepstakes. Two of those franchises have relatively stable lineups. They’ll be able to field more or less the team they designed with or without James. The third, the Miami Heat, will not.
Miami spent the early part of the offseason nabbing another prime target on the market: MVP-level forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Paired with Bam Adebayo, Antetokounmpo is expected to have a bounce-back season and threaten the Knicks for the Eastern Conference crown.
Why did the Heat need James, then? They didn’t want him as a bruising power forward, but as a veteran set-up man for Giannis and Bam in a huge, smart, experienced trio of superstars.
Miami didn’t get that, nor are they likely to form a Big Three at this point. But they still very much need the veteran playmaker to bring the starting lineup together.
This is where the Blazers come in. They are now holding the following:
I wouldn’t entirely discount the Heat being interested in Henderson, but the money guy for them is Holiday. He won an NBA Championship with Antetokounmpo in 2021. He knows more about basketball than just about any active player in the league right now. And he can play any role from facilitator to mainline scorer.
As soon as LeBron went off the market, the Heat front office went into “now what?” mode. I’m betting that the solid-gold answer to that question for them revolves around Holiday. They need him badly.
Miami has a couple options to make a deal work. Andrew Wiggins would be tradeable pretty much straight-up for Jrue. A more likely combination would be Bobby Portis and Nikola Jovic, one veteran power forward and one young. The Blazers could use either. Third-team options are also available. Portland could save money by porting one of them out for an expiring contract or pick up future draft picks.
Whatever the options, I wouldn’t be surprised if Holiday-to-Miami rumors started bubbling towards the surface of NBA news cycles, especially in September as the start of the new season approaches.
