Portland Trail Blazers: 5 offseason roster moves they need to make

4. Re-sign a big man.

The Trail Blazers have three big men who are free agents this year. They have Hassan Whiteside, Caleb Swanigan and Wenyen Gabriel who have the option of signing anywhere they can in the league.

While the Blazers hold the Whiteside’s Bird rights, they are unlikely they will go anywhere near the $40 million or so that they can offer the big man. Given that Nurkic is back to full health, it is likely Whiteside would move to the backup position.

He has just finished his massive deal signed with the Miami Heat so there is the chance that Whiteside might re-sign with the Blazers for a lesser amount. He struck up a friendship with Lillard and feels comfortable with this team.

He averaged 15.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, led the league with 2.9 blocks and gave out 1.2 assists in 30.0 minutes per game. Neither of the other two free agent big men came anywhere close to these averaged.

Swanigan set some pretty huge screens when he was on the court and shot the ball at 60.5 percent from the field. Gabriel did not perform overly well in any of the games that he played for the Blazers and is unlikely to be re-signed.

The Blazers will be looking to secure the services of Whiteside at a team-friendly deal. If they cannot do this then they will look to secure Swanigan so that there is some continuity from last season.