NEW YORK CITY – As the Trail Blazers took the floor to warm-up before Wednesday night’s Blazers and Knicks game, a trade rumor surrounding CJ McCollum started circulation on social media.
NBA Twitter caught fire after people on Twitter were talking about how ESPN’s NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski was discussing trade rumors on ESPN regarding Trail Blazers shooting guard CJ McCollum.
According to the speculation, the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, and Philadelphia 76ers are all interested in McCollum.
In what is now a deleted tweet, the proposed trade was 76ers forward Al Horford for McCollum.
There's a couple issues here and ultimately why there's no merit behind the speculation. First, ESPN has been airing college football all day. ESPN and ESPN2 are currently airing the 106th Rose Bowl between Oregon and Wisconsin? When would Woj have said that? There's currently no video evidence suggesting he did.
And is if we needed any further clarification...
Hate deleting tweets, but the below tweet was a troll and I fell for it.
I reached out to some people and they confirmed the obvious that CJ McCollum would be a player of interest.
Being that there’s no trace of Woj actually saying something, I pulled my tweet.
Happy 2020. https://t.co/T6sR6jCtJH— Brian Michael Jacobs (@BrianMikeJacobs) January 2, 2020
The Trail Blazers have also said in the past that they are not going to break the duo of McCollum and Damian Lillard. Trail Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey has never wavered from that.
Plus, the Blazers and McCollum agreed to a three-year, $100 million contract extension this past July, meaning McCollum now has five years left on his deal.
Because of the contract extension McCollum would not be eligible to be traded until January 30th.
Like our Trail Blazers Insider Dwight Jaynes tweeted: Why would anyone believe the McCollum and Horford trade?
CJ cannot be dealt until Jan, 30 and it’s very doubtful Portland would want to take on that contract of Horford. And there has NEVER been any indication Blazers would trade CJ. OK? https://t.co/yRyqACsjJo
Horford’s contract is A LOT.
Horford signed a 4-year deal worth $109,000,000 with the 76ers, including $97,000,000 guaranteed, and an annual average salary of $27,250,000.
It seems this speculation is just that, and we can all move on.
Now, let’s get back to the action. Catch the Trail Blazers and Knicks right now on NBC Sports Northwest.