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2017 Offseason In Review: Portland Trail Blazers

October 20th, 2017 at 1:38pm CST by Luke Adams

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.

Key offseason losses:

The transaction that was responsible for reducing the Trail Blazers’ team salary most significantly was the trade that sent Crabbe to the Nets in exchange for Andrew Nicholson. Crabbe was a productive wing for the Blazers in 2016/17, setting new career highs in PPG (10.7), FG% (.468), and 3PT% (.444), among other categories. However, he was set to earn $19.3MM this season and $56MM+ in total over three years, making him a logical trade chip.

The Nets, who originally signed Crabbe to his current contract in the form of an offer sheet last year, were happy to take him off the Blazers’ hands, ditching Nicholson’s unwanted contract on Portland as part of the deal. Portland waived and stretched Nicholson’s contract, reducing his cap hit to just $2.844MM. But Nicholson will count against the Blazers’ cap for that amount for the next seven seasons. In the end, it probably would’ve been in the Blazers’ best interests to just let Brooklyn have Crabbe when he first signed his offer sheet with the club in 2016.

Outside of Crabbe, there were no major departures for the Blazers, who also traded Tim Quarterman and waived Festus Ezeli. Quarterman only played 80 total minutes for Portland in his rookie season, while Ezeli never appeared in a single game for the franchise, having been sidelined with a career-threatening knee injury.

Key offseason additions:

There were several NBA teams that essentially sat out the free agent period in July, but none were less active than the Trail Blazers. Portland was the lone NBA club that didn’t sign a single player to a guaranteed NBA contract this offseason. The team’s only signings were three training camp invitees – all of whom were later waived – and two-way player C.J. Wilcox (the club also inked Wade Baldwin to a two-way deal after the regular season got underway).

Although they have no incoming veterans to incorporate into the lineup, the Blazers did add a pair of potential core pieces in the draft. Using the 15th and 20th overall picks, Portland traded up to No. 10 to snag Gonzaga big man Zach Collins, and then selected power forward Caleb Swanigan with the No. 26 pick.

While Collins wouldn’t have been my choice at No. 10, with Malik Monk and Donovan Mitchell still on the board, he should be a good fit in Portland. Jusuf Nurkic will handle starting duties in the middle, but Nurkic has battled some health problems this year, and the Blazers don’t have a reliable backup at center after Leonard struggled and Ezeli failed to pan out last season.

As for Swanigan, the Purdue alum was one of my favorite prospects in this year’s draft class after he averaged a double-double (18.5 PPG, 12.5 RPG) and shot 44.7% on three-pointers in his sophomore season. Despite only being 20 years old, Swanigan looks ready to step in and play a rotation role in Portland right away.

Outlook for 2017/18:

While ownership must be happy to see the Blazers’ projected luxury tax bill decline so significantly, the club’s approach to the offseason and its lack of cap flexibility made it difficult to upgrade the roster. President of basketball operations Neil Olshey and company did okay given their limited options — there’s some value in continuity, and Portland’s new rookies are promising. I do expect the club to be a solid playoff contender in 2017/18.

Still, after a season in which Portland struggled to earn the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, the team’s ceiling may not be much higher than that in the short term, given the lack of offseason modifications to the roster.

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

Blazers Sign Wade Baldwin To Two-Way Contract

October 20th, 2017 at 8:40am CST by Austin Kent

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.

Teams With Open Roster Spots

October 19th, 2017 at 1:54pm CST by Luke Adams

For the first time, NBA teams are permitted to carry up to 17 players this season. In addition to carrying up to 15 players to the NBA roster, teams can add two more players on two-way contracts. The rule changes related to roster sizes have allowed teams to maintain a little extra flexibility, and many clubs are taking advantage of that added flexibility to open the season, carrying the full 17 players.

Several teams still have open roster spots though, affording those clubs a different kind of flexibility. A team carrying only 14 NBA players, for instance, has the opportunity to sign a free agent or add a player in a trade at any time without waiving anyone, all the while avoiding paying for a 15th man who almost certainly won’t see much playing time.

With the help of our roster count page and our two-way contract tracker, here’s a breakdown of the teams that have at least one open NBA or two-way spot on their rosters:

Teams carrying just 14 NBA contracts:

Boston Celtics
Charlotte Hornets
Detroit Pistons
Houston Rockets
Indiana Pacers
Los Angeles Clippers
Minnesota Timberwolves
Oklahoma City Thunder
Portland Trail Blazers

It makes sense that a few of these teams would avoid carrying a 15th man to open the season. The Rockets, Thunder, and Trail Blazers are all taxpayers, and teams like the Clippers and Hornets are close enough to the tax threshold that avoiding a 15th salary is logical. Among these clubs, the Celtics seem like perhaps the best bet to fill their final roster opening soon, now that the team has likely lost Gordon Hayward for the season.

Teams carrying just one two-way contract:

Atlanta Hawks
Houston Rockets
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
New York Knicks
Portland Trail Blazers

The Trail Blazers don’t currently have a G League affiliate of their own, but the other five teams on this list do, so that’s probably not the reason Portland has waited to fill its second two-way slot. In all likelihood, these six teams will add a second two-way player in time for G League training camps, which open next week. The season tips off on November 3.

Pat Connaughton Making Good On Blazers' Decision To Retain Him

October 19th, 2017 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers had a chance to avoid guaranteeing Pat Connaughton‘s salary for the coming season if they’d waived him over the summer, but Portland decided to keep him around, and that decision looked good on opening night, writes Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com.

NBA Teams With Most, Least Roster Continuity

October 18th, 2017 at 11:51am CST by Luke Adams

As usual, the 2017 NBA offseason featured a ton of player movement, with new rookies entering the league, free agents changing teams, and a total of 40 trades being completed between the end of the 2016/17 season and 2017/18’s opening night.

Some teams were more involved in that summer carousel than others. The Celtics, for instance, will enter the season carrying only four players – Al Horford, Terry Rozier, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart – who finished last season with the team. The Clippers are another team whose roster underwent significant turnover this offseason, with only five players returning from last year’s squad.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, teams like the Warriors, Bucks, and Trail Blazers made minimal changes, bringing back 12 players from last year’s rosters. That was especially impressive in Golden State’s case, since the club entered the summer with players like Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, David West, Andre Iguodala, Zaza Pachulia, Shaun Livingston, and JaVale McGee eligible for free agency — all of those players re-signed with the Dubs.

As a point of comparison, the Clippers took on more new players in their Chris Paul trade alone than clubs like the Warriors, Bucks, and Blazers added all summer.

After taking a closer look earlier today at the NBA’s youngest and oldest opening night rosters, we’ll turn our attention to the clubs with the most and least roster continuity to open the season. Listed below are the number of returning players for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, from most to fewest. Two-way players aren’t included in this list.

Bringing back a significant number of players doesn’t necessarily lead to regular season success, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a few of the teams near the top of this list enjoy fast starts due to their players’ familiarity with each other, while teams near the bottom of the list may take some time to get used to their changes.

Here’s the returning-player count for each team:

Golden State Warriors: 12
Milwaukee Bucks: 12
Portland Trail Blazers: 12
Denver Nuggets: 12
- Note: Nuggets’ figure set to dip to 11 once the team officially signs Richard Jefferson and waives Jameer Nelson, as is expected.
Dallas Mavericks: 11
Miami Heat: 11
Philadelphia 76ers: 11
Phoenix Suns: 11
San Antonio Spurs: 11
Toronto Raptors: 11
Washington Wizards: 11
Memphis Grizzlies: 10
New Orleans Pelicans: 10
Brooklyn Nets: 9
Charlotte Hornets: 9
Detroit Pistons: 9
Houston Rockets: 9
Chicago Bulls: 8
Los Angeles Lakers: 8
New York Knicks: 8
- Note: The Knicks are the only team carrying 16 players to open the season.
Oklahoma City Thunder: 8
Orlando Magic: 8
Utah Jazz: 8
Atlanta Hawks: 7
Cleveland Cavaliers: 7
Minnesota Timberwolves: 7
Sacramento Kings: 7
Indiana Pacers: 6
Los Angeles Clippers: 5
Boston Celtics: 4

Western Notes: Leonard, Exum, Hood, Nurkic

October 14th, 2017 at 3:05pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kawhi Leonard won’t be ready when the season opens because of a lingering quad injury, relays the Associated Press. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich confirmed the news to reporters Friday night, saying the team will be cautious with its star forward, who didn’t play in any preseason games or participate in camp. ”He’s still rehabbing and when he’s ready, he’ll be ready,’‘ Popovich said.

Leonard is in a rehab program for quadriceps tendinopathy, and Popovich admitted last month that recovery is taking longer than anticipated. Leonard began experiencing the condition last season, and it is not related to an ankle injury in the Western Conference finals that knocked him out of the playoffs.

There’s more from the Western Conference:

Leonard, who finished third in the MVP voting last season, is this year’s favorite for the award, according to Tom Haberstroh and Titus Smith of ESPN. The writers examine the criteria used in MVP balloting and believe Leonard has the strongest case. He averaged a career-best 25.5 points per game last year while helping the Spurs win 61 games.
Jazz guard Dante Exum is exploring alternatives to season-ending surgery on his left shoulder, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Exum suffered a separated shoulder with ligament damage in a preseason game last week. The fifth pick in the 2014 draft already missed the 2015/16 season with a torn ACL. Exum has a Monday deadline to work out an extension with Utah or he will become a restricted free agent next summer.
Also facing a Monday extension deadline is Rodney Hood, who anticipates a larger role in the Jazz offense this season, relays Jody Gennessy of The Deseret News. The fourth-year shooting guard believes Utah, which went unbeaten in the preseason, will be able to replace the contributions of free agent losses Gordon Hayward and George Hill. “It won’t necessarily be easy, but it will be easier than people think because we’ve got guys who can pass the ball and play without the ball,” Hood said.
The Trail Blazers won’t work out an extension with center Jusuf Nurkic before Monday, but that doesn’t mean his future won’t be in Portland, according to Mike Richman of The Oregonian. The Blazers traded for Nurkic in February, and the organization would prefer to watch him for a full season before committing to a long-term contract. Nurkic helped propel the team into the playoffs after being acquired from Denver and makes no secret of his affection for Portland. “I love this team,” Nurkic said Friday. “I love this city. I love these teammates. I enjoy it here.”

C.J. McCollum Suspended For One Game

October 14th, 2017 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA has suspended Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum for one game without pay for leaving the bench during an altercation during a preseason contest, the league announced today in a press release. The incident took place during Wednesday’s game in Phoenix.

The Trail Blazers are scheduled to return to Phoenix to play the Suns on Wednesday in their first game of the season, so McCollum will be ineligible to appear in that contest. McCollum’s season will begin next Friday in Indiana against the Pacers.

The suspension will cost McCollum $165K in salary, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.

Trail Blazers Waive Anthony Morrow, Two Others

October 14th, 2017 at 7:52am CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers have made their roster cuts in advance of the regular season, according to beat reporter Casey Holdahl, who tweets that Anthony Morrow, Archie Goodwin, and Isaiah Briscoe have been waived by the team.

The cuts of Briscoe and Goodwin were anticipated. Although they received training camp invitations from the Blazers, Briscoe and Goodwin were viewed as long shots to make the team’s regular season roster, with 14 players on guaranteed salaries already under contract.

Morrow, however, was the favorite to earn the 15th and final spot on Portland’s regular season roster. The veteran sharpshooter has a career .417 3PT%, and was viewed as a good fit to become an outside threat off the bench for a team that lost Allen Crabbe over the summer. Still, Morrow struggled last season, shooting just 30.8% from three-point range, and with the exception of a 12-point game against Toronto last week, didn’t do much in the preseason.

Rather than carrying Morrow on the regular season roster, it appears Portland will open the season with a 14-man squad. That makes some sense, considering the Blazers are currently over the tax line; any extra contract would increase the club’s projected year-end tax bill.

Portland is now carrying 15 total players — 14 on NBA deals and one on a two-way contract.

Extensions Appear Unlikely For Nurkic, Gordon, Payton

October 13th, 2017 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

With the October 16 deadline for rookie scale extensions just three days away, it appears unlikely that Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic, Magic forward Aaron Gordon, or Magic guard Elfrid Payton will agree to new deals with their respective clubs.

Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link) has the latest on Nurkic, reporting that the fourth-year center is preparing to reach restricted free agency in 2018. The Trail Blazers have yet to make an extension offer to Nurkic, according to Charania, so it would take a major last-minute push from both sides to get something done.

As for the Magic duo, Gordon’s agent tells Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel that he doesn’t anticipate his client reaching an extension agreement. Payton’s rep doesn’t weigh in with his thoughts, but Robbins is bearish on the point guard’s chances of securing a long-term deal within the next few days.

In the Blazers’ case, it makes some sense that the team would be willing to wait to finalize a new deal for Nurkic. Although the former Nugget looked great in 20 games for Portland last season, he has battled multiple injuries this year, including a broken leg, and the team likely wants to take a longer look at him before making a major long-term commitment. The Blazers’ cap situation also complicates matters, since the club may need to dump another contract if Nurkic signs an extension.

The Magic, meanwhile, have had years to evaluate Gordon and Payton, but the current management group wasn’t around for the duo’s first few seasons. As Robbins notes, new president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman and GM John Hammond have said they want to use the 2017/18 season to get more familiar with the franchise’s players, so they may be reluctant to invest major money in either Gordon or Payton quite yet.

Assuming Nurkic, Gordon, and Payton don’t negotiate a last-minute extension by Monday’s deadline, they’ll all be eligible for restricted free agency next July.

Extension Remains A Possibility For Nurkic

October 11th, 2017 at 5:03pm CST by Luke Adams

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton (Insider link) identifies Aaron Gordon (Magic), Elfrid Payton (Magic), Zach LaVine (Bulls), Jusuf Nurkic (Trail Blazers), and Rodney Hood (Jazz) as the most logical candidates for extensions among the group of remaining eligible players.