Portland Trail Blazers: 3 reasons why keeping Rodney Hood was smart
By Ty Delbridge
In a surprising move, the Portland Trail Blazers were able to re-sign Rodney Hood. Here are three reasons it was a good move.
A few hours after the official start of 2019 NBA free agency, it was reported by ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski, that the Portland Trail Blazers and Rodney Hood agreed to a two-year, $16 million contract. It includes a player option on the second season.
The Blazers made a deal to acquire Hood from the Cleveland Cavilers at the trade deadline in February. After playing in Utah for three in half seasons, Hood had been in Cleveland for a year and was not playing his best basketball. He was starting to become forgotten about in the NBA world.
.Hood came in and played well for the Blazers right away during the season. In those 27 games for the Rip City, he averaged 9.6 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.8 steals per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from the 3-point line.
He also played fantastic in the playoffs, bringing a scoring punch off the bench that could relieve some pressure off the Blazers stars and was a big reason the team was able to advance to the conference finals.
In the playoffs, Hood put up 9.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.4 steals per game while shooting 46.8 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from 3-point range.
Neil Olshey had traded for Kent Bazemore as protection in case Blazers lost Hood in free agency. Now, Hood and Bazemore return together and Blazers remain among the elite of the Western Conference. https://t.co/2YUYUN1LKJ
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2019
Many thought the Blazers would not be able to keep Hood based on their lack of funds and the interest he was believed to attract from other organizations around the league. Portland even added Kent Bazemore just in case Hood left. Now they kept him, the Blazers are loaded at the wing position. Here are three reasons bringing Rodney Hood back was a smart move.