Mavs Trade Scenarios: Blazers Ready for 'Break-Up' with CJ McCollum? Brunson to Knicks?

While surveying the NBA trade landscape, it has been tough to pinpoint potential moves that the Dallas Mavericks could realistically make given the assets they have at hand. Dallas has some good pieces, but overall, it just doesn't seem quite good enough for them to get their foot in the door with trade talks on bigger names like Ben Simmons.

Could a player like Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard CJ McCollum be a higher-end piece the Mavs can actually afford?

According to a report from Marc Stein, the emergence of Anfernee Simons in January has ignited "some of the loudest speculation yet in the Pacific Northwest that the Trail Blazers are finally ready to break up the (Damian) Lillard/CJ McCollum partnership."

The Mavs' offense was already struggling before Tim Hardaway Jr. went down with a foot injury that could keep him out for the remainder of the season, so even though the urgency from the Dallas front office to make a trade might be elevated now, it should have been getting to that point before the injury ever happened if we're being honest.

"We have to continue to grow as a team," said Cuban in our DallasBasketball.com exclusive interview. "Our defense is there. Now we need to get there offensively."

Adding McCollum into the mix in Dallas would definitely be a step in the right direction of 'getting there' offensively. McCollum is averaging 20.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game while shooting 40.5 percent from deep on 8.1 attempts per game. Here are two trade scenarios, with one of them being a two-parter, to get McCollum in a Mavericks uniform.

Trade Scenario No. 1

Mavs receive: CJ McCollum

Blazers receive: Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber

With Simons elevating his game, one has to wonder if new Portland management will want to risk stunting that growth when Lillard eventually returns from his abdominal injury. Hardaway Jr. not only would give the Blazers another viable bench scoring option on a long-term deal, but with him possibly being out for the rest of this regular season, the move could help Portland secure better positioning in this year's draft lottery. Hardaway Jr. has also shown that he's more than capable of starting if needed.

Trade Scenario No. 2

Mavs receive: CJ McCollum

Blazers receive: Kristaps Porzingis

-then-

Mavs receive: Mitchell Robinson, 2023 first-round pick (that as originally sent from Dallas to New York in the 2019 Porzingis trade)

Knicks receive: Jalen Brunson

As we wrote about earlier at DallasBasketball.com, sometimes trade opportunities can open up based on how certain player showcase themselves against certain teams. In this particular case, Porzingis always seems to give Portland fits, so naturally we have to wonder if the Blazers might be open to swapping McCollum for him straight up. Both players have injury concerns, are getting paid big money, and might fit better in their new locations, so why not give it a shot?

Ever since last season's trade rumors that suggest the Mavs were looking to move on from Porzingis, things have been very quiet on that front. Porzingis and the Dallas front office have said all the right things to the media, but given that KP hasn't ever been the most natural fit next to superstar Luka Doncic, maybe the chance to add a player like McCollum could get the trade smoke wafting again.

If the Mavs did move on from Porzingis in this scenario, they'd need to find more rim protection in another trade. Maxi Kleber is a good defensive big, but his abilities have limits, as we've seen over the last two postseasons. With McCollum in Dallas, the role of Jalen Brunson would be decreased, and the Mavs would likely want to get as much for him via trade as they can before he hits the unrestricted free agency market this summer.

The New York Knicks' interest in Brunson has been well documented. Many teams around the league appear to think highly of Brunson, but no team might think higher of him than the Knicks, and the Mavs should look to take advantage there. In a scenario where McCollum is already a Maverick, a second move sending Brunson to New York for Mitchell Robinson, as well as the 2023 pick Dallas sent to the Knicks in 2019, that would be a playoff-fortifying sequence of transitions.

Such a wild scenario would give the Mavs a starting lineup of Luka Doncic, CJ McCollum, Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber (for spacing reasons over Dwight Powell) and Mitchell Robinson. Phew... is your head spinning yet?

Stay tuned to DallasBasketball.com for game coverage and all Mavs-related trade updates.