Let me Kibosh this thread early. Apologies to OP for piling on, but this idea, as you've stated it, just doesn't have any chance at getting off the ground.
Portland's entire team is built around Damian Lillard..
They'd surely want Trey Burke back, that is if Olshey would even listen to an offer for Lillard.. Or this would just be 2 parts in a 3-way trade..
On a personal note; It would be ****ty to see Favors being on the short end of 2 D-Will type trades, given his talent level he doesn't deserve that typa treatment. while it's far from reality, it'd cast him in the light as some type of placeholder/gatekeeper..
Lets recount some of Portland's recent transactions;
- traded a vet(Batum) for a PF(Vonleh) Who's 20 and has 30 starts on the season(Favors has 23), there's definitely some type of intrinsic value in him gaining experience while the Blazers are in playoff contention, He pushed off a bit but dunked on Rudy the other night, that was surprising...
- signed a younger vet PF (Ed Davis) to a reasonably priced 3 year deal..
- traded for Mason Plumlee, who can play 4 and 5, and block shots and rebound, finish around the rim, he's got some flaws but makes up for them maintaining a high activity level - he's locked into a very reasonable salary and then restricted after next season too..
- signed Al Farouq Aminu who's plenty capable of switching to PF vs many matchups..
-They have a looming free agent Meyers Leonard who turns just 24 in a month, he's underperforming this year but still will command a decent wage on the open market this summer, especially if he can manage to get hot from 3 before the end of the season. Favors arrival would be a bad signal for him. Watching Leonard walk isn't a great outcome for Portland either, he's a former lottery pick, and as I've said many times over, big guys take longer to develop..
Maybe Leonard would be included in this trade, and Withey going the other way? That'd possibly ease the loss of those 1sts..
To add to the plausibility of this trade, you've gotta throw in Neto too, obviously they could use C.J. McCollum as more of a PG in this scenario, but other than that it'd leave them with just Tim '8.8 mpg' Frazier at PG.. and again their whole team is structured for the PG and SG to throw up 3's and the other guys to rebound, which might not be the best way to utilize Favors talents anyway - Their 5th option on offense, of their starters now, is their PF...
A trade like this is interesting though.. I'm all for some sort of 2 for 1 swap.. If I was a GM i'd wouldn't trade those first round picks for anything less than potentially better 1st round picks.
So lets say the Trade was Favors, Exum, Withey, Neto this years 1st round pick unprotected and the 2021 1st round pick, for Meyers Leonard and Lillard (which works in the trade machine)
That leaves the Jazz with this juicy lineup/perimeter rotation(lotta firepower..);
Lillard/Burke/ 10-day contract (Olivier Hanlan?!)
Hood/Burks*/Johnson
Hayward/Ingles/Hood
Lyles/Booker/Leonard/ (Jeff Ayers?!)
Gobert/Leonard/Pleiss
Which is damn malleable moving forward(even without my prized draft picks!).. The Jazz could still designate Rudy for a 5 year contract.. Portland did that with Lillard already, he qualified for the 5 year 30% 'derrick rose rule' max..
Lastly I just want to point out -- trying to gauge Dante Exum's trade value at this point is a dangerous, dangerous game. In a profession where jobs are on the line, and overturn happens quickly.. I wouldn't want anything to do with it..
