Portland Trail Blazers add another guard in Seth Curry

The Portland Trail Blazers are back in the free agency action, this time to sign Seth Curry. He marks the fourth new guard on Portland since last season ended.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Portland Trail Blazers have signed Seth Curry. His deal is for two years with the second being a player option. He will be guaranteed $2.75 million for the 2018-2019 season.

Curry’s signing marks Portland’s fourth new guard since the season ended. The team drafted Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr., hinting that Pat Connaughton and Shabazz Napier were on their way out.

Then, Neil Olshey signed Nik Stauskas on a one-year minimum deal worth $1.7 million. And finally, adding Seth Curry puts the nail in the coffin for Connaughton and Napier’s careers in Portland.

The Blazers’ lineup now consists of six guards under 6’5″, and the team still only has three players over 7 feet tall.

Seth Curry breakdown

Seth Curry missed all of last season with a left tibia fracture. He has been participating in all basketball-related activities since the end of May, though.

In his most recently played season (2016-2017), Curry averaged 12.8 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.1 steals and 2 three-pointers per game. He played 70 games, 42 of which he started, for an average of 29 minutes per night.

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Like his brother, Curry spends most of his time on the perimeter taking three-pointers. While he sometimes ran the point for the Dallas Mavericks, the Blazers will likely play him off the ball as a three-point threat. He shot 42.5% from deep in 2016-2017, better than any Portland player did last season.

Many perimeter floaters tend to go on invisible stretches; they stand in the corner for an entire offensive set and don’t touch the ball once. Curry generally finds his way into the offense, recording a usage rate of 19.5% in 2016-2017 with Dallas.

As a result, his per 36 minutes numbers aren’t too shabby. Per-36, he averages 15.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.5 three-pointers per game.

Seth Curry is a solid defender too, despite his size. He stole the ball 1.1 times per contest in 2016-2017, more than Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum despite playing 7-8 minutes less.

His defensive box plus/minus is minus-0.9, but in his most recent campaign, it was down to minus-0.4.

Fit with Blazers

As far as addressing surface level needs, Curry does the job. He’s a capable defender at the guard position (replacing Napier’s pesty defense) and can knock down the three-pointer better than anyone else on the team.

The only issue with signing him is the number of undersized guards on the roster. Portland has:

Damian Lillard
CJ McCollum
Anfernee Simons
Gary Trent Jr.
Wade Baldwin IV
Nik Stauskas
and now Seth Curry

With one of Lillard and McCollum on the floor at all times, several of these guys will get very little to no playing time. One option is sending Simons and Trent Jr. down to the G-League.

Next: Is Nik Stauskas an improvement on Pat Connaughton?

For $2.75 million, Seth Curry is a steal. As long as he stays healthy, he can provide consistent three-point shooting and offense off the bench.

It is difficult seeing Neil Olshey sign Stauskas and Curry for a combined $4.4 million when he let Ed Davis walk for the same price. Chances are the team is going over the luxury tax line, and the money should be invested in wings and big men from now on.