2023 NBA Mock Draft: Pistons, Pacers, Bulls and Heat make trades

2023 NBA Mock Draft with trades: The Portland/Boston blockbuster

The Portland Trail Blazers seem to be the most likely team to trade out of the top-5 of the 2023 NBA Draft, as they are looking to win with Damian Lillard right now and may not want to wait around for a rebuild. Lillard expressed unhappiness with all of the youth on the team last season and may want to add another star to complement Dame, whose window is closing rapidly.

There is one star they might be able to target, but would either team be interested?

The only way Boston would do this is if they think they’ve hit their ceiling with the Tatum/Brown pairing and don’t want to pay the two up to $600 million combined. This could be viewed as a step back for Boston, who made the Eastern Conference Finals and has plans to get back there regularly.

But it does give them their point guard of the future, a very good scoring guard in Simons and a high-ceiling prospect in Sharpe. That’s a lot to build around with Tatum, who is still only 25-years-old. It may set Boston back in the short term (depending on who else they obtained this summer) but would give them quite a young core to build around.

The Trail Blazers get their second start to pair with Lillard and they are now the ones stuck trying to figure out how to make the finances work.

Not sure either team would do this, but it is an interesting one that would change the immediate trajectory of both teams.

The Houston Rockets could go in a lot of directions here and in truth, the Detroit Pistons may be in a trade line behind them if they decide to make a move with their 4th pick. But in this mock, they take Amen Thompson to add another athletic playmaker to their young core.