With Larry Nance Jr. trade, Blazers take step forward after a summer of Damian Lillard speculation

Portland is a better, more balanced team with Nance on the roster. But is incremental improvement enough to keep Lillard around?

After months of speculation about Damian Lillard's future, the Portland Trail Blazers have made their biggest move of the offseason. The three-team trade that sent Derrick Jones Jr. and a protected first-round pick to the Chicago Bulls does not bring another star to Portland, nor does it mark the beginning of a teardown. Larry Nance Jr. does, however, make the team materially better.  Nance is the type of acquisition that former Blazers coach Terry Stotts must have been praying for over the past few seasons, a high-end role player who makes his money on defense. Portland desperately needed a defensive upgrade, and it specifically needed this infusion of versatility. Unlike Stotts, new coach Chauncey Billups will have the personnel to go small and experiment with different coverages without getting torched. In today's NBA, flexibility is virtually a requirement.  This is still a team built around Lillard and CJ McCollum, but it's starting to look more like the type of team that you'd want to build around Lillard and McCollum. Norman Powell, acquired at the trade deadline and extended this offseason, gives the Blazers another reliable source of scoring. Robert Covington, acquired before last season, is a top-tier help defender and another quick-release shooter. Nance gives them some of the frontcourt passing they get from Jusuf Nurkic, mixed with the athleticism and switchability that attracted them to Jones. Portland's offense cratered with Jones on the court last season, though, and its defense was horrendous when Carmelo Anthony and Enes Kanter checked in off the bench.