Portland Trail Blazers offseason shows front office’s dedication to winning

Following the tragic death of Portland Trail Blazers owner and longtime fan Paul Allen, many were unsure of the direction the franchise would take.

Fear not Portland Trail Blazers fanatics, your favorite team appears to be in good hands. After a long battle with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, co-founder of Microsoft and Blazers superfan Paul Allen departed in October, 2018.

This loss left many unsure of the fate of the Portland Trail Blazers, now in the hands of Paul’s sister Jody Allen. Over $20 billion in assets were handed down to Jody, including ownership of Portland’s basketball team. Many assumed the team would be put up for sale and into the hands of a mogul that could potentially desire to move the team.

While the sale of the team appears to be an inevitability down the road, Jody Allen is more than an acceptable steward of the franchise’s fate. All signs point towards Jody honoring Paul’s legacy by keeping the team competitive, even if it means dipping back into the luxury tax.

Entering this offseason, the Blazers held $126 million in guaranteed contracts on their pay roll. With the luxury tax apron set at $132 million, this only allowed the Blazers to bring in one player at the MLE while letting every free agent walk.

Simply put, the Portland Trail Blazers appeared a team destined to regress. As much fun as it was, 2018-19 was the peak. At least, that was the belief until Jody Allen let president of basketball operations Neil Olshey work his magic.

Holding on to the No. 25 pick in the draft and selecting Nassir Little put $2.1 million on the books. The swap of Evan Turner for Kent Bazemore added an additional $660 thousand to the pay roll, inching towards that luxury tax mark. Finally, re-signing fan-favorite Rodney Hood to an incredibly low price at the MLE ($5.7 million) pushed the Blazers straight into tax territory.

That bridge had finally been crossed. The Blazers were in tax territory, but no one knew how willing Jody was to dive deep into it. That was of course, until the surprise trade for Miami’s maligned Hassan Whiteside.

Absorbing Whiteside’s albatross contract tacked on an additional $5 million to the pay roll, and fully committed this Blazers team to winning now. Additional signings of Anthony Tolliver and Mario Hezonja while accepting Jake Layman’s qualifying offer racked up another $6.1 million.

Those moves helped finalize the Portland Trail Blazers roster for the 2019-20 season, at a final price of $144 million. That number far exceeds the tax apron of $132 million. Due to the NBA’s tax rules, the actual bill that will be paid comes out to $157.8 million.

However, that number goes without considering the contract Layman is set to sign. If he signs for an amount greater than $2.5 million per year, the Blazers will have to pay a considerably larger amount in tax money.

Let’s say Layman re-signs for $5 million, Portland’s pay roll would come out to $147 million while paying $3.50 in tax for every dollar above the tax threshold. That means the entire roster would cost $184.6 million. For that reason, it will be in Portland’s best interest to bring back Layman for as low of a cost as possible to avoid hefty tax payments.

It appears Portland will yield one of the most expensive (and most successful, hopefully) teams in the league yet again next year.

Either way, the Portland Trail Blazers decision to bring Damian Lillard back on a four-year, $196 million supermax extension clearly exemplifies the team’s dedication to maintaining a winning culture. We should be grateful to follow an organization that prioritizes winning over profits.