The 2018 NBA trade deadline is Feb. 8. The Portland Trail Blazers are seventh in the West with a record of 27-22. They are currently over the cap and are a luxury tax team. Should they try and shed salary at the deadline?
Two summers ago, the Portland Trail Blazers handed out about $233.4 million in combined contracts to Evan Turner, Allen Crabbe, Meyers Leonard, Maurice Harkless and Festus Ezeli.
The Blazers paid Ezeli $7.4 million last season. He was only guaranteed to make $1 million this season, but the Blazers did not bring him back.
This summer, the Blazers traded Allen Crabbe and the rest of his $56 million to the Brooklyn Nets for Andrew Nicholson. The Blazers waived Nicholson and stretched his contract out till 2024. They only have to pay him $2.8 million until 2024.The Blazers made this deal to shed salary, and to get under the luxury tax bill for the 2017 season.
Flashing forward to this season, the NBA has its salary cap set at $99.9 million. The Blazers’ current cap is about $122.2 million. That puts them at $23 million over the limit.
The luxury tax for the NBA is set at $119.2 million. The Blazers are $2.9 million into the luxury tax. For every dollar the Blazers are over the luxury tax, they have to pay a penalty.
Blazers owner Paul Allen can’t be pleased with the idea of having to pay extra for this Blazers team that is only 27-22.
Portland is one of the few teams fighting for a playoff spot in the West. It needs to make a trade this deadline to bring in another talented player to add with Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, and Jusuf Nurkic. But if Rip City wants to be competitive past this season, its need to shed some of its bad contracts at the deadline, so it has the flexibility to get better.
Here are five trades the Blazers could make that would help them shed salary but stay in the hunt for this year’s playoffs.