- The Trail Blazers will host the Thunder in a Sunday tilt, the first appearance either Carmelo Anthony and Paul George will make in Portland this season. As Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes, the franchise actively pursued both over the course of the summer, to no avail.
Al-Farouq Aminu, the Trail Blazers’ starting small forward, will be sidelined for the next two or three weeks due to a sprained right ankle, writes Mike Richman of The Oregonian. The club has confirmed the diagnosis and the timeline.
Aminu, 27, had been off to a solid start this season, averaging 9.4 PPG and a career-high 8.1 RPG through eight games. He was also knocking down three-pointers at a career-high rate, making 1.6 per game with a .433 3PT%.
“It’s tough,” Damian Lillard said of his teammate on Thursday. “Chief (Aminu) is a huge part of our team. He does a lot of things that might not get mentioned all the time, might not show up on the stat sheet, but he’s as big a part of our team as just about anybody. Whatever the situation might be somebody’s going to have to step up and we’re going to have to figure out a way to get some wins.”
While Aminu will be sidelined until later in November, the Blazers did get another injured power forward, Noah Vonleh, back this week. Vonleh shifted into the starting lineup for Portland on Thursday in what was just his second game of the season.
Rookies Caleb Swanigan and Zach Collins also could see a bump in playing time during Aminu’s absence, while Maurice Harkless may see more minutes at power forward, Richman writes.
- The Trail Blazers will be without forward Al-Farouq Aminu for the time being. Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes that the 27-year-old left Wednesday night’s game in a walking boot. While Richman writes that X-Rays came back negative, the team revealed that he’ll miss Thursday’s contest.
Trail Blazers center Meyers Leonard, who was in a walking boot in the team’s locker room on Thursday, underwent an MRI on his injured right ankle and got some good news and bad news. According to the Blazers (Twitter link via Casey Holdahl), Leonard avoided major structural damage, but a lateral ankle sprain will keep him sidelined for about four to six weeks.
Leonard suffered the injury on Wednesday, before Blazers practice officially got underway. He was participating in some one-on-one work with Zach Collins and Caleb Swanigan when he landed awkwardly, per Joe Freeman of The Oregonian.
“I went to block Zach’s shot and landed on his big old size 19’s,” Leonard said.
Leonard, who is in the second season of a lucrative four-year deal with the Blazers, has been struggling to work his way into the team’s regular rotation this season. Through five games, the 25-year-old center has played just 17 total minutes, appearing in two contests. Ed Davis has handled backup duties at center behind starter Jusuf Nurkic.
The Blazers should get a boost to their frontcourt depth soon, with Noah Vonleh aiming to return to the court next week. Outside of Leonard and Vonleh, both of Portland’s two-way players – Wade Baldwin and C.J. Wilcox – are also sidelined due to injuries.
The Trail Blazers have jumped out to a hot start this season thanks in large part to their formidable second unit. Jason Quick of NBC Sports Northwest writes that the club’s bench is becoming one of the league’s best.
Other player who have looked solid off the bench for the Trail Blazers include Ed Davis and Pat Connaughton. This season, 28-year-old Davis has emerged as a voracious rebounder (18.8 per-36) and Connaughton has chipped in with 10.8 points per game, including two three-pointers made per contest at a 50% clip.
- Second-year guard Wade Baldwin signed a two-way contract with the Trail Blazers this week but the team’s official website has announced that the guard has undergone surgery and is expected to miss six weeks after tearing a ligament in his right thumb.
- Entering a contract year, Noah Vonleh is targeting a November 1 return from shoulder surgery, writes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. That would give the Trail Blazers a fully healthy NBA roster, though two-way player C.J. Wilcox will be sidelined for a while — the team announced in a press release that Wilcox is expected to miss six to eight weeks after undergoing a successful arthroscopy on his right knee.
2:40pm: Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) hears that the Knicks have indeed contacted the Suns about a Bledsoe deal and Phoenix wants No. 8 overall pick Frank Ntilikina and Willy Hernangomez in exchange for the veteran point guard.
1:35pm: Add the Bucks to the list of teams that have expressed interest in Bledsoe, Marc Stein of the New York Times relays (Twitter link). According to Sam Amico of Amico Hoops, the Clippers and Blazers may also have interest in the point guard.
12:49pm: The Knicks are among the teams that have contacted the Suns about a Bledsoe deal, tweets ESPN’s Ian Begley.
12:34pm: The Suns are involved in trade talks with several teams regarding Bledsoe, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Teams know Bledsoe is available and something should happen soon, adds John Gambadoro of ArizonaSports, who states that Bledsoe believes he has played his last game with Phoenix.
12:16pm: Eric Bledsoe‘s dispute with the Suns continues to escalate as he will be held out of tonight’s home game with the Kings, tweets Chris Hayes of ESPN. Bledose met with team officials this morning and was subsequently sent home.
Bledsoe has become increasingly more open about his dissatisfaction in Phoenix, culminating with a tweet yesterday that stated “I Dont wanna be here.” That was posted roughly an hour before the team announced the firing of coach Earl Watson.
Bledose isn’t happy to be on a losing team in the prime of his career and he has lingering bitterness with the organization over shutting him down in March of last season because of soreness in his knees. A report earlier today said Bledsoe was “depressed” after a rumored deal fell through that would have sent him to Cleveland as part of the package for Kyrie Irving.
Bledsoe, 27, has spent the past four seasons in Phoenix after being acquired from the Clippers in a 2013 trade. He had his best year in 2016/17, averaging career highs in points (21.1 per game) and assists (6.3).
In a conversation with The New York Times’ Marc Stein, Carmelo Anthony explained that his decision not to waive his no-trade clause for the Trail Blazers was rooted in logistics, not basketball, reports John Canzano of The The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Hoops Rumors is breaking down the 2017 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, revisiting the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll evaluate each team’s moves from the last several months and look ahead to what the 2017/18 season holds for all 30 franchises. Today, we’re focusing on the Portland Trail Blazers.
Signings:
- C.J. Wilcox: Two-way contract. One year. $50K guaranteed.
Camp invitees:
- Isaiah Briscoe: One year, minimum salary. Exhibits nine and 10. (Waived)
- Archie Goodwin: One year, minimum salary. Exhibit nine. (Waived)
- Anthony Morrow: One year, minimum salary. Summer contract. (Waived)
Trades:
- Acquired the draft rights to Zach Collins (No. 10 pick) from the Kings in exchange for the draft rights to Justin Jackson (No. 15 pick) and Harry Giles (No. 20 pick).
- Acquired cash ($100K) from the Rockets in exchange for Tim Quarterman.
- Acquired Andrew Nicholson from the Nets in exchange for Allen Crabbe.
- Note: Nicholson was later waived.
Draft picks:
- 1-10: Zach Collins — Signed to rookie contract.
- 1-26: Caleb Swanigan — Signed to rookie contract.
Departing players:
- Allen Crabbe
- Festus Ezeli (waived)
- Tim Quarterman
Other offseason news:
- Extended president of basketball operations Neil Olshey through 2021.
Salary cap situation:
- Operating over the cap and over the tax line by approximately $3MM. Carrying approximately $122MM in guaranteed team salary. Full taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.192MM) still available.
Check out the Portland Trail Blazers’ full roster and depth chart at RosterResource.com.
Story of the summer:
Most NBA teams head into the offseason looking to improve their respective rosters by spending money, but that wasn’t necessarily the case for the Trail Blazers, whose primary goal over the summer was to trim their projected team salary.
The summer of 2016 loomed large over the 2017 offseason for the Blazers, who handed out lucrative long-term contracts to several free agents in ’16. Not all of those deals look awful a year later, but the team probably wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to take many of them back, including huge multiyear investments in Meyers Leonard, Evan Turner, and Allen Crabbe.
Portland entered the offseason with $133MM+ in guaranteed team salary on the books for 2017/18, not including cap holds for the club’s three first-round picks. By the time the dust settled and the regular season roster was set, the Blazers had sliced that number by more than $10MM, exponentially reducing the franchise’s projected luxury tax bill. So, in at least one sense, the club’s offseason was a success.
OCTOBER 20: The Blazers have officially signed Baldwin to a two-way contract, the team announced in a press release.
OCTOBER 19: The Blazers and free agent point guard Wade Baldwin have agreed on a two-way deal, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The 21-year-old was waived by the Grizzlies earlier in the week.
Baldwin will join a Portland franchise that has done a particularly good job developing guards over the years, most notably their star backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Considering Baldwin’s potential heading into his rookie campaign as a first-round pick last season, it will be interesting to see if the change of scenery serves him well.
Baldwin averaged just 3.2 points per game in limited time on the court last season but spent the summer in competition with Andrew Harrison for a role off the bench in Memphis. In Portland, Baldwin will set out to steal minutes from incumbent backup Shabazz Napier if and when he gets a shot with the NBA club.
While Baldwin’s contract will be a two-way deal, the Blazers currently lack a direct G League affiliate, so it’s not yet clear which G League club he’ll suit up for this season.