tl;dr - newbie wondering about feasibility/appeal of Rozier to Portland/McCollum to X/Young Big and/or picks to Boston
Hi all, I'm very new to following basketball (I have really only been paying attention for the past two seasons) and I'm very new to trade valuation, and the (at first take) rather complicated rules about draft picks and how they slot, as well as trading rules in general. I completely missed the 2008 run, but on this one I've been so excited watching young players gel, outcoaching other teams, accelerated/unanticipated growth curves, etc. It's the same things that make baseball really fun. It's been the perfect team to watch to learn from and to fall in love with a sport. I've been telling my coworkers at work all week about how proud I am of what this team did, how we basically wrote off this season five minutes in and would have loved to just play the kids and try to sneak in as a 7/8 seed with 45 wins and some playoff exposure. Shutting down Golden State in their court and holding them to under 90 points (the fewest since Durant joined) was very impressive. But for that team to lose Kyrie and a key rotational player in Theis (a surprise in of himself), and do what it did anyway, is really making a statement. Jayson Tatum is going to be a very, very high level basketball player for a very long time. Couldn't be happier for this organization and what it has the chance to do against some very good superteams.
Anyway...
General sentiment in what I read upthread was that while there are things to really like about each of Smart/Rozier individually, as well as the importance of deep depth when you're in a championship window, it's fair to wonder if there is playing time available for both of them here. There are a lot of teams out there where either one would be the 3rd or 4th best player on a roster, easily, and a lot of those teams aren't trying to tank. I don't think the current roster with Kyrie, Hayward and Theis all back - penciled in this early, of course - is going to leave room for two 25-30+ minute roles on the bench..
Here in Portland, it was obvious to see that Lillard straight up elevated his game to another level in Feb/Mar, and has probably entered his peak. Portland is motivated to GFIN and not waste that peak, but they are in cap hell and have a lot of roster cloggers. First thing floated after they were eliminated was wondering if you trade McCollum (because status quo is get in as a mid seed and get shut down in the first or maybe second round), even though he is clearly their second best player and really the only threat to shutting Lillard out of a game and daring the rest to win it. I don't think Portland matches up in a 1-for-1 trade, but if they decide to go down the road of shopping McCollum (hard to believe they won't listen), Rozier's affordable 2018-2019 makes him an extremely appealing target IMO.
P.S. then Bledsoe really could make his Terry Rozier rose! We'd love to glass pour that!