Blazers' Stance On Key Player Coming Back in Potential Jerami Grant Trade Revealed: Report

Matt Levine | Jul 29, 2024

The Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers have been linked together all offseason regarding a potential trade of veteran forward Jerami Grant. So far, the big issue holding a deal up has been the Lakers' resistance in trading two first-round picks for Grant. 

In any deal coming back to the Trail Blazers, it would likely be either guard D'Angelo Russell or forward Rui Hachmura. According to Lakers insider Jovan Buha, the Trail Blazers may not want Russell and would prefer he not be in any deal. 

“I’ve heard Portland doesn’t want D-Lo because they have a million guards anyway,” Buha said. “So, it just doesn’t really make sense for them.”

With the excess amount of guards that Portland has on the team already, it makes sense why they may not want Russell. Portland would be better off landing someone like Hachimura in the deal to replace Grant in the lineup.

Hachimura has shown major improvement being with the Lakers and he has worked on his 3-point shot of late. Last season, he averaged 13.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game.

He shot 42.2 percent from beyond the 3-point line and could be a solid addition to the Portland lineup. Hachimura is also years younger than Grant so he would fit the timeline with the other young players on the team.

We may see more activity regarding a deal take place in the coming weeks with training camp coming soon than most think. Getting off the contract of Grant could benefit the Trail Blazers but it remains to be seen if a deal will come to fruition.

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