The Trail Blazers are exercising their 2024/25 team option on Dalano Banton, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
As our team option decision tracker shows, Banton is slated to make a $2,196,970 next season. However, that figure is non-guaranteed. Now that his option has been picked up, his deal is partially guaranteed for $217,533, with multiple trigger dates to follow.
A report back in April said Portland was expected to pick up its option on Banton’s contract, so the move doesn’t come as a surprise.
The 46th pick of the 2021 draft, Banton was traded to Portland from Boston in a salary-dump move ahead of the February deadline. In part due to injuries, Banton received extended playing time down the stretch of the ’23/24 season for the Blazers, averaging 16.7 PPG, 4.8 RPG and 3.9 APG in 30 games, including eight starts (29.2 MPG).
While those counting stats are impressive, the 24-year-old struggled with scoring efficiency, posting a .408/.311/.780 shooting line over that span. That slash line is quite similar to his career mark (.409/.289/.729) — working to improve those percentages will be a key for Banton moving forward.
Still, obviously the Blazers were impressed enough with the 6’9″ guard to exercise their option on his deal. Despite being a former second-round pick, Banton has only played on standard contracts to this point in his career. The Toronto native spent his first two seasons with his hometown Raptors.
His shooting is erratic but he has at least 2 skills to stay at nba level. Never understood why Masai the King let him go the hometown product.
He was a great acquisition for his ball handling and play making ability. He doesn’t have to score to be productive and showed with his work ethic that he has plenty of untapped talent and should thrive in the team game. Hopefully they trade Simons and Grant so blazer fans don’t have to witness “ISO hero ball” anymore. PDX fans have been longing for the return of the team game since before Lillard and his non-stop “chuck it from anywhere” ISO ball offense and lack of trust in teammates. Blanton plays the right way and is a solid defensive player that Lillard refused to play.