I'd rather trade CJ to OKC, let PG go to CLE, and get that BKN pick back.
How bout this as the best 5-team trade ever assembled? Seriously, I know it's a crazy 5-team trade but it might be the best one ever assembled:
OKC Gets: CJ McCollum
OKC Trades: Paul George
NOP Gets: Al-Farouq Aminu / Ed Davis / Jae Crowder / JR Smith
NOP Trades: Top 3 Protected 2018 NOP 1st /
Top 3 Protected 2020 NOP 1st / Omer Asik / Alexis Ajinca / Solomon Hill
LAC Gets: Top 3 Protected 2020 NOP 1st /
Top 5 Protected 2021 CLE 1st / Alexis Ajinca / Ante Zizic / Cedi Osman / Dante Cunningham
LAC Trades: DeAndre Jordan
CLE Gets: Paul George, DeAndre Jordan
CLE Trades: Unprotected2018 BKN 1st / Top 5 Protected 2021 CLE 1st / JR Smith / Iman Shumpert / Jose Calderon / Ante Zizic / Cedi Osman
POR Gets: Unprotected 2018 BKN 1st (via CLE) / Top 3 Protected 2018 NOP 1st / Iman Shumpert / Solomon Hill / Omer Asik (TPE) / Jose Calderon /
POR Trades: CJ McCollum / Al-Farouq Aminu / Ed Davis /
-Cleveland would have a lineup of
Thomas / George / LeBron / Love / Jordan
-OKC would replace PG with a SG who likely fits better next to Westbrook with his spot up shooting and who's young and locked in for four years or so
-LAC trades DeAndre for two future firsts which could both be in the lottery depending on how things play out, as well as some solid young players while reducing salary
-NOP trades two picks to shed their bad contracts and add serious depth. Their rotation would now consist of
Rondo/Holiday/Crowder/A.Davis/Cousins backed up by
Nelson/JRSmith/Aminu/Davis
Lets say Portland loses 7-8 wins after this trade... Based on projections at
https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/projections/standings/, we'd have the following picks:
7th (BKN)
8th (POR)
~17th (NOP)
That's some serious ammo to trade into the top 3, if we don't get lucky enough to hit some ping pong balls. With the 7th and 8th picks, Portland would have a 25% chance at having a pick in the top 3, and a 7.1% chance at the 1st pick.