Biggest winners and losers of the 2018 NBA Trade Deadline
Winner: Portland Trail Blazers
General manager Neil Olshey needed to make a move at this year’s deadline. After his infamous 2016 summer spending spree saddled the cap sheet with unwanted salary for a team that topped off as an annual first round playoff exit, building around Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum became paramount.
To that end, it’s somewhat disappointing the Portland Trail Blazers were only able to unload Noah Vonleh in a salary dump. The albatross contracts like Evan Turner, Meyers Leonard and even Maurice Harkless are still clogging up Rip City’s cap room.
However, in such a tight market where first round picks are as valuable as ever, the Blazers were never going to get that kind of unwanted salary off the books without surrendering valuable draft compensation or a considerable asset. To that end, getting under the luxury tax by dumping Vonleh was the most logical solution.
Source says Blazers are done dealing. Noah Vonleh being traded to Chicago to get under tax and picking up $3.5 million traded player exception will be only move.
— Jason Quick (@jwquick) February 8, 2018
In a deal with the Chicago Bulls, Rip City officially gave up on the potential of its 22-year-old power forward who had played a grand total of 56 minutes dating back to Dec. 22. He had fallen out of Terry Stotts’ rotation and in his third season with the Blazers, wasn’t showing much of the growth you’d hope to see from a former top-10 pick.
Vonleh was averaging 3.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in 14.4 minutes per game this season, so getting his $3.5 million salary off the books to slide back under the luxury tax threshold is a win. It’s not the sexy DeAndre Jordan trade fans may have hoped for, nor is it the end of the Evan Turner era, but it’ll do for now.