Portland Trail Blazers: 5 Potential Buyout Candidates
By Jakob Ashlin
Wesley Matthews
The Portland Trail Blazers have needed to acquire a Three-and-D wing ever since they lost Wesley Matthews in free agency in 2015. Ironically, the front office might be able to solve their problem by simply bringing back Matthews.
The Blazers do not need a wing as badly since they just acquired Rodney Hood, but Matthews and Hood together would give the Blazers a scary amount of depth. Acquiring Matthews would also allow Neil Olshey to unload Maurice Harkless before the deadline or this summer and gain some cap relief.
Sure, Matthews is not the same player that he was in 2015, but he is still a very good two-way wing. He was shooting 38% from three with the Mavericks this season before he was traded to New York Knicks in the Kristaps Porzingis blockbuster.
The Knicks are expected to explore the trade market for Matthews before buying him out. Although a number of teams could have interest in Matthews, his $18.6 million salary will make a potential trade difficult. Teams could always offer the Knicks a bad contract attached to a draft pick, but the Knicks wanted Matthews due to his expiring contract. New York’s front office is trying to free up as much cap space as possible this summer.
I would circle DeAndre Jordan and Wes Matthews as two potential buyout players to keep an eye on. Players need to be waived by March 1 to become playoff eligible.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) January 31, 2019
If Matthews does hit the open market, the Blazers should absolutely try to bring him back to Portland.