JULY 3: The Trail Blazers have officially signed Tolliver, the team announced today in a press release. Minimum-salary contracts can be finalized during the July moratorium.
JULY 1: The Trail Blazers and free agent power forward Anthony Tolliver have reached an agreement on a one-year deal worth $2.6MM, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Based on the reported terms, it appears to be a veteran’s minimum deal for Tolliver, as he’s eligible for a $2,564,753 minimum salary in 2019/20. Portland also reportedly committed its taxpayer mid-level exception to Rodney Hood already, limiting the club’s ability to offer other free agents more than the minimum.
Tolliver, 34, has been one of the NBA’s more effective under-the-radar stretch fours in recent years. He struggled a little in Minnesota last season, averaging just 5.0 PPG and 2.7 RPG in 65 games (16.6 MPG), but he has knocked down 1.6 threes per game at a 40.7% rate over the last three seasons for the Kings, Pistons, and Timberwolves.
Tolliver will help provide much-needed outside shooting in the frontcourt for a Portland team that has lost Al-Farouq Aminu in free agency and is trading away Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard to acquire Hassan Whiteside.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blazers are ballin’ on a budget.
Yessssss man I’m so glad that Portland is now a contender and that vets want to play here. Amazing pickup and a continued great offseason for Neil Olshey and the front office.
Al-farouq aminu is a little bit of a loss for them. When I watched he had some pretty fantastic games as a Defender and Corner three man.
I need to look at their new roster. They’ve got the All-Star guards, two good centers, I’ve never been a fan of hood, and…., oh, Bazemore !! that’s right I think he helps on the wing. He’s at least as good as Aminu.
The West is going to be tough this year, wow.
True, but Tolliver is a 37% career 3 point shooter at the 4 and that’s what we lacked. Not retaining Aminu at $10m per year was questionable to me before they got Hezonja and Tolliver on minimum deals. As of right now Blazers roster is looking like this:
PG – Lillard / Simons
SG – McCollum / Hood / Trent Jr
SF – Bazemore / Hezonja / Layman (if retained)/ Little
PF – Collins / Tolliver / Labissiere
C – Whiteside / Nurkic
Very deep team but something tells me they’re still not done.
I can see one more veteran center joining on a minimum deal with Nurk out until at least the all star break.
Can’t Skal play a little center?
Yes they look pretty good and have added so they’re pretty strong team. There’s a lot to be said about stability and continuity as well. They didn’t shake up the whole thing like a lot of teams do. Same core.
Boogie to Portland?