Report: Trail Blazers' CJ McCollum on trade market

A day after the Portland Trail Blazers sent Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers, Mike Scotto of USA Today's HoopsHype reported Saturday that NBA executives believe the Trail Blazers' CJ McCollum is also available via trade.

According to Scotto, the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks are among the teams expected to be interested in acquiring McCollum.

McCollum, 30, has spent his entire career in Portland after he was drafted in the first round by the team in 2013. After a slow start to his career, he stepped into the Trail Blazers' starting lineup in the 2015-16 season and earned the NBA Most Improved Player award when he averaged 20.8 points, 4.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds. Those numbers held steady with McCollum averaging between 21.0 and 23.1 points in each of the next five seasons.

While he has been a consistently productive player for the Trail Blazers, the emergence of fellow shooting guard Anfernee Simons may make McCollum expendable. Simons was a first-round pick in 2018 and the 22-year-old has broken out this year with 15.7 points and 3.7 assists per game. In a press conference Saturday, Trail Blazers interim general manager Joe Cronin described Simons as a "core piece" for the team moving forward.

The Trail Blazers are currently 21-32 and sit in tenth place in the Western Conference. McCollum signed a three-year, $100 million contract extension with Portland in 2019 and is due over $69 million in the next two seasons.