The Portland Trail Blazers should let Hassan Whiteside go in Free Agency

Hassan Whiteside is a free agent this summer, but he’s likely to command a payday not worth his services. The Portland Trail Blazers should let him walk.

Hassan Whiteside is likely to command a payday beyond what the Portland Trail Blazers should pay him in Free Agency. It’s not that they don’t have the money to pay Whiteside, but he is likely to command a pay day of between $10 and $16 million, which is far too much for a backup center.

Whiteside can still be a starting center in this league and he will probably command a payday that mirrors this. The main point is, this contract shouldn’t come from the Blazers.

Whiteside is a decent starting center in this league, who can have good games and bad games. But his statistical production doesn’t always mirror the impact he has on court. He is a great shot blocker but not an impactful defender. There is a big difference between those two things.

Whiteside chases blocks, and on numerous occasions this season he has padded his stats by taking rebounds from other players. This doesn’t mean that he is a bad basketball player, but his value isn’t what you would think when you looked at his counting stats.

Whiteside can raise the floor of a bad team with his rebounding and shot blocking abilities, but behind Jusuf Nurkic, his value is minimal.

He is a bad defender in space, he chases blocks that are sometimes impossible to get, leaving the man he is marking for an open layup. And he even celebrates after getting a block without finishing the possession.

He is a good shot blocker and rebounder, but he chases these two statistics so much that it becomes detrimental to the teams defense.

Nurkic does so many things at a higher level than Whiteside, while also doing lots of things that Whiteside can’t do at all.

The only thing that Whiteside does better than Nurkic is finish at the rim, but that’s not reason enough to keep him around.

The Blazers are better to get a young backup who can be part of the youth movement, while sharing those minutes with a veteran that they can sign with the minimum or slightly above.

Also, the small amount of money that the Blazers may have in free agency, is tied up by Whiteside’s cap hold. That means, that until they go and sign Whiteside, they have a large amount of cash sitting on the books as a place holder, that sucks up any money they have to spend in free agency.

The only way to clear this space is to renounce Whiteside and let him go. This won’t clear a massive amount of money, but it will mean around $10 million in room. Though $10 million in room doesn’t sound like a lot, with only limited roster spots they could still get one decent free agent with this money.

Spending $10 – $15 million on a backup center just doesn’t make sense. Neil Olshey is better off spending this money solidifying the forward rotation.

If Whiteside’s price on the open market represented his defensive value then it would be a no brainer to bring him back. But a backup center should be paid no more than $6 – $8 million a year, and Whiteside won’t come back for that.

Whiteside had some good games in town, but it’s time for him to move on as we welcome Nurkic back to the court.