With Ja back, and the emergence of Scottie Pippin Jr., it is looking less and less like Memphis needs Marcus Smart for his primary ball-handling abilities. After his recent terrible shooting performance that costed them a ballgame, the Grizzlies fanbase has started to wonder whether he might get moved.

Meanwhile, Portland is seriously lacking a true starter-caliber PG after trading away Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, and Malcolm Brogdon. They had hoped Simons would emerge as a replacement for Dame, but he has looked genuinely bad as a starting point-guard so far this year.

The reality is, Simons is an elite movement shooter with almost unlimited range. He's probably top-10 among guys in the league who can pour in buckets from anywhere on the court. But he is not best suited to be a starting point guard. He is best suited to running defenders off screens and spacing the floor.

The fact that Simons can serve as a backup PG option for Memphis should be enough to make them not feel they are losing much depth at the position by trading away Smart.

The Blazers on the other hand need to bring in a defensively tough, veteran PG who can anchor the playing style that Billups wants to create, while mentoring Scoot Henderson. Portland is losing games because they can't play defense and crumble when teams crank up the defense, not because they are lacking in shooters.

I don't know if this kind of trade would need some picks also exchanged to make it happen, but certainly I don't think either team would be worse off after the trade in terms of salary or contract lengths, and Simons would be able to make an immediate impact on a Memphis team that looks so far like a playoff team but who realistically needs to add more elite scoring threats to have a chance against the top of the west.