2018 NBA Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Portland Trail Blazers

The Trail Blazers were hardly alone in spending extravagantly during the 2016 offseason, but their investments – C.J. McCollum, Evan Turner, Maurice Harkless, Meyers Leonard, and Allen Crabbe – have proven particularly onerous. Those aren’t all bad deals, and Crabbe has since been traded, but the Blazers’ big contracts have hamstrung the team’s ability to keep upgrading the roster. That issue figures to continue plaguing Portland this offseason, as the club has little cap flexibility.

Here’s where things currently stand for the Trail Blazers financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:

Guaranteed Salary

Player Options

  • None

Team Options

  • None

Non-Guaranteed Salary

Restricted Free Agents

Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds

Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000

Projected Cap Room: None

  • With over $110MM in guaranteed contracts already on their books for 2018/19, the Blazers have no viable path to cap room, barring multiple trades and/or cuts. In fact, with only eight players accounting for that $110MM+, Portland could easily approach or surpass the tax line once the team’s roster fills out — especially if Nurkic is re-signed.

Footnotes:

  1. Baldwin’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 19.
  2. Layman’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after June 30.
  3. Papagiannis’ salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 19.

Note: Rookie scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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