Portland Trail Blazers: 5 goals for the 2018 offseason
By Ty Delbridge
5. Clear cap space
The Blazers head into this summer with five players set to be free agents: Ed Davis, Jusuf Nurkic, Shabazz Napier, Pat Connaughton and Wade Baldwin. Davis is an unrestricted free agent, and the other four guys are restricted free agents They also will head into the summer with five guys set to make $10 million or more next season, including Evan Turner (who is set to make $17.9 million) and Meyers Leonard (who is set to make $10.6 million).
The Blazers need to find a way to dump either Leonard or Turner’s contract this offseason if they want to have room to keep guys like Davis, Napier and Nurkic or have room to add better players to the roster.
Turner is a solid player for the Blazers, but he doesn’t do enough to warrant that type of money per season. The Blazers can find guys like Turner or maybe even a little bit better for much cheaper.
Leonard has entirely fallen out of the rotation and only appeared in 33 games this season. The Blazers have found success with Jusuf Nurkic and Ed Davis and drafted two guys who play in the frontcourt, Caleb Swanigan and Zach Collins.
The Blazers cannot pay a guy $10 million to sit at the end of the bench. Both guys have two years left on their deal, and it would benefit the Blazers big time for them to move on from one or maybe even both those bad contracts.