The Portland Trail Blazers are heading into 2018 NBA free agency without much cap flexibility and will be limited in the ways they can get better. Portland needs to improve its roster, so here’s a look at some guys who can help.
The Portland Trail Blazers were one of the top teams in the NBA last season and will look to build on that this offseason in hopes of having similar success next season. They were led by First Team All-NBA guard Damian Lillard and up-and-coming star, C.J. McCollum.
The Blazers front office needs to surround these two guys with better players. They need players who can handle, shoot and score the basketball, so not all the pressure falls on the two guards.
General manager Neil Olshey joined ESPN for an interview before the 2018 NBA Draft, talking about his goals for the offseason. One of the things he talked about was how the New Orleans Pelicans series “exposed deficiencies on the roster.” Olshey told the ESPN crew how the team has been rebuilding this roster since LaMarcus Aldridge left and that the front office was looking for “diamonds in the rough,” wanting to focus on developing the younger talent.
But after consistently making the playoffs the past few seasons, Olshey expressed that this team is done rebuilding and is ready to add players who can help this team win in the playoffs. Olshey said, “We realize we need to kind of view our future this summer through the lens of how are we going to be more impactful and play at a higher level come playoff time next year.”
The problem for Portland is its cap space; it has none. This offseason should be spent looking at how the Blazers can maybe trade Evan Turner or Meyers Leonard to bring in better players ready to contribute. When Olshey talked to ESPN, he mentioned the advantages the Blazers have despite the lack of cap space on their team:
"“ We have an incredibly aggressive owner in Paul Allen. He believes in the core of this group and wants to improve the group. And we got two really good trade exceptions. ”"
It sounds like Olshey plans on making some changes to this roster before the start of the next season. The Blazers have a $3.5 million trade exception from trading Noah Vonleh and a $12.9 million trade exception from trading Allen Crabbe. They also have an $8.6 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception that they can use this offseason on free agents.
Going into this offseason, the Blazers had 12 guys under contract and were still set to be $12.5 million over the cap. (After signing Nik Stauskas, that number rose to $13.2 million). They had five players set to be free agents they needed to make a decision on: Jusuf Nurkic, Ed Davis, Shabazz Napier, Pat Connaughton and Wade Baldwin IV.
Napier was not tendered a qualifying offer, while Connaughton’s rights were renounced. Davis was signed by the Brooklyn Nets for a meager $4.4 million.
The biggest question is Nurkic. Portland traded for him and was hoping he could become the third star next to Lillard and McCollum. Nurkic has been good, he just hasn’t been great and that could scare the Blazers away from paying long-term money. Luckily for Rip City, not too many teams have significant cap space this offseason. There are a lot of centers on the market, and not many organizations want an old school center like Nurkic.
He will most likely accept the one-year qualifying offer that was presented to him on Thursday and then hit the free agency market as an unrestricted free agent next summer. The Blazers drafted Zach Collins in last summer’s NBA Draft and may look to leverage Collins against Nurkic in contract talks in the future.
The Portland Trail Blazers have sent center Jusuf Nurkic his qualifying offer, making him a restricted free agent on July 1, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 27, 2018
The Blazers have a chance to go out this summer and add a role player or two that can help this team win and help make up for some of their weaknesses. With that in mind, let’s take at five players Rip City should target this offseason through free agency, keeping their $8.6 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception in mind.