I love how we've gone in six weeks from wanting to make Trent a throw-in in every trade to now thinking he's better than CJ.
Trent's a good role-player. CJ's a guy defenses have to prepare for.
CJ's not a perfect player, obviously, but he's a lot better than he gets credit for. It's not his fault they offered him a huge contract. Fact is he is one of the craftiest shot-creators in the NBA, and that has a value that people -- particularly stat-heads -- don't appreciate. He can create a good shot for himself on almost any possession against any defender off the dribble. There's aren't a ton of players who can do that consistently.
CJ's issues are that he gets too caught up in going through all of these dribble moves to make the highlights rather than breaking down his defender and shooting when he has his first best chance. For as good as he is at getting defenders off-balance, he fades away too much; with his game, he should be living on the foul line, but he's avoiding contact instead of drawing it, and he has a body that can take contact and still get a decent shot up if he wants to do it. Of couse, he also gets the blinders on going through all these crossovers and dance moves and forgets he is drawing extra defenders, so someone is open for a shot, too.
He can be just as creative a passer as he is a shot-creator if he doesn't get himself into shot-only mode, which, unfortunately, happens often enough to drive a lot of us nuts.
The problem is getting someone of equal value in trade, because you not only have to get someone who can be a great scorer but someone who can handle. I think saying Heyward for CJ is laughable. So now Dame has to handle the ball even more, and create for his teammates even more. CJ has a great deal of value, and, to make it harder, he's probably even more valuable to the Blazers than any other team.
The ideal scenario, IMO, would be someone the Blazers don't make the playoffs and get lucky and get a top three pick. You use the pick on Edwards or Ball and hope they can come in and start from Day 1. They won't be CJ, but they would be good; I particularly like Edwards ultimately as a superior Tyreke Evans power guard. Then you could trade CJ with a quality 3 man who might not be quite as valuable but would be good enough to make the team better as a whole. That's not going to happen, but it's fun to dream.