Three Portland Trail Blazers that may have played their last game in town
Hassan Whiteside
Similar to Melo, Hassan Whiteside is probably unlikely to return because of the likelihood of a reduced role and reduced money. Fans and media alike will be annoyed if he leaves for nothing, but the reality is that they got a years good production out of him, and he was a nice replacement at centre with Nurkic out injured.
Whiteside is still a starting center in this league. But his fit with Lillard and McCollum isn’t good. Whiteside is a great shot blocker, but overall as the anchor of the defense, he is inferior to Nurkic.
He chases stats, he leaps for blocks he doesn’t need to and he can’t defend the perimeter at all. His impact on a team defense is minimal.
Some of this stuff wouldn’t matter as much if Whiteside was happy to be a backup center, but when it comes time for free agency, he will be expecting starter money. He earnt $27 million last year so it’s unlikely that he will come back for anything less than $12 million.
Unless Blazers management know something we don’t know about Nurkic and his health, he will be back and playing between 27 and 32 minutes a night when he returns and is back to full fitness.
Whiteside’s rebounding and shot blocking is less important if he was a backup. He could still be functional off the bench, but I can’t imagine he would want to take bench money and then a bench role.
The remaining 16 – 24 minutes a night or less is a pretty small role, and we saw how unhappy Whiteside was when he was asked to come off the bench in his time with the Miami Heat.
The Blazers can also clear a small amount of cap space by letting Whiteside walk, probably not a bad idea considering he is almost 31-years-old and a multi-year deal would probably be pretty risky when you look at his injury history.
If he was willing to take a significantly smaller role and less money then he could be a serviceable backup. But i’m not banking on him agreeing to these terms with Neil Olshey and the front office.