Damian Lillard gave away the game in an interview with Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports late last month.
Discussing his tanking team's path forward amid the most tumultuous, transformational season of his career, Lillard acknowledged the Portland Trail Blazers wouldn't use their horde of theoretical cap space to sign outside free agents this summer.
“But we've also positioned ourselves to do something that we haven't been able to do since I've been here,” he told Haynes, “which is we’ve opened up money, we got picks, we got a $22 million trade exception, we got a $6 million trade exception, we got the full mid-level, we got the biannual.”
Go ahead and ignore every prognostication that lists Portland as a cap-space team this offseason. The only way interim general manager Joe Cronin and company would have the necessary financial ballast to add big-name free agents on the open market is renouncing restricted free agent rights to Anfernee Simons, letting Jusuf Nurkic walk and declining the team option on Josh Hart's existing contract.
Needless to say, the Blazers aren't about to part ways with three of their current top-six just for the opportunity to court the best players available on the open market. Rip City isn't exactly a sexy free-agent destination, and there's obvious mutual interest in Simons, Nurkic and Hart returning to Portland not just for next season, but multiple years on end.
Take Lillard's word for it: The Blazers will navigate free agency come July armed with exceptions instead of cap space, chasing key rotation players instead of team-changing stars.
Here are three early free-agent targets for Portland with the full mid-level exception, worth a starting annual salary of just over $10 million.
3 early Trail Blazers targets in 2022 free agency
The last time he was healthy enough to play for an extended stretch, Warren was the talk of the NBA bubble. He averaged 31.0 points per game on a ridiculous 66.4 effective field goal percentage during the restart, cooling off a bit in the first round of the playoffs as the Indiana Pacers were swept by the Miami Heat, but nevertheless continuing to establish himself as a two-way impact player on the wing.
That was nearly two years ago. Warren has played in just four games since and none this season, beset by a stress fracture in his left foot that finally required surgery in January 2021. He was originally slated to return at some point in 2021-22, but the Pacers shut him down for good on March 17th, an acknowledgment of their place at the bottom of the standings rather than another indictment on Warren's recovery.
The 28-year-old has been a full participant in on-court work with Indiana for weeks, set to be ready for next season barring an unforeseen setback.
Warren would undoubtedly be outside Portland's price range if he'd been able to play at all this season, let alone come close to duplicating his standout performance in the bubble. Three-level scorers comfortable playing on and off the ball are few and far between, and Warren proved himself a solid defender of opposing wings in 2019-20, too.
Competition for Warren will likely be fierce, but don't be surprised if he ultimately bails on the Pacers. Though he's on record as liking the relative anonymity afforded by playing in a small market, Indiana might have entered a new phase of long-term team-building by trading Damontas Sabonis at the deadline.
Might Warren warm to the similarly slow pace of playing in Portland? That location could finally fall in the Blazers' favor is just one of many reasons why Warren needs to be their priority in free agency this summer.
Anderson may very well prefer to remain with the Memphis Grizzlies, setting himself up for perennial title contention with the best young team in basketball. Free agency and salary-cap management don't exist in a vacuum, though, and the Grizzlies could opt to stay as cheap as possible next season before both Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ja Morant are on big-money contracts in 2023-24.
Memphis' potential cap casualty could end up as a major boon for the Blazers, a snug stylistic and chronological fit for Anderson given his playmaking ability, defensive versatility and age. Right in the thick of his prime at 28, Anderson would thrive in Chauncey Billups' read-and-react offensive system while providing some much-needed length and disruption on the other end.
The problem with Anderson is the same one that's existed since his days at UCLA. He's shooting an ugly 31.0 percent on catch-and-shoot threes this season, per NBA.com/stats, and the extra hitch at the top of Anderson's jumper hardly suggests much room for improvement without a complete overhaul of his stroke. His career-best 34.0 percent shooting on spot-up triples last season was still below league average, after all.
Anderson is overstretched as a starter, possessing clear limitations on both sides of the floor due to his lack of shooting range and explosive athleticism. But he's a useful offensive initiator and impactful team defender, not to mention the type of cerebral player whose strengths are magnified playing under a coach like Billups.
Expect Lillard and Simons to be more committed on defense than ever next season. But all their best intentions and mental fortitude won't turn Lillard and Simons into positive defenders, and the Blazers don't have a designated “stopper” of opposing guards on the roster who will be ready for rotation minutes by next season. Sorry, Keon Johnson.
Enter Harris, quietly enjoying his best season since in four years with the bottom-dwelling Orlando Magic.
On-ball defense always has been and remains his greatest calling card. There are only a handful of players in the league you'd want matched up with the most dynamic guards more than Harris. His mid-series appearance for the Denver Nuggets in the bubble completely changed their epic first-round matchup against the Utah Jazz, with Harris returning from injury to at least make life tough on Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley in Games 6 and 7.
But what makes him such an appealing option for Portland are the strides Harris has taken offensively. He's shooting a borderline elite 41.3 percent on catch-and-shoot threes this season, per NBA.com/stats, his best mark since 2017-18. Harris doesn't offer much offensive juice elsewhere, but he's a smart, decisive player who keeps the ball moving in the halfcourt and is opportunistic in the open floor.
Quality depth at forward is a more pressing need for the Blazers. It wouldn't shock if they addressed a lack of backcourt defense by simply retaining Kris Dunn for the veteran's minimum. Harris would be an awesome consolation prize if Portland misses out on big wings like Warren and Anderson, though, giving Billups the option to sic a dogged defender on opposing point guards when the Blazers are struggling to contain the ball.
Follow Us
Subscribe