Portland Trail Blazers: 3 best backup big men signings

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The Portland Trail Blazers may move on from Hassan Whiteside this off-season. If this is the case, they will need to sign a center to backup Jusuf Nurkic.

The Portland Trail Blazers may move on from Hassan Whiteside this off-season. The seven-foot-big man earnt north of $27 million last season, and this season if he wanted to stay, he would be a back up to Jusuf Nurkic. This backup role would come at a reduced salary too.

The Blazers likely want to duck the luxury tax, so giving a $12 + million salary to a backup center may be a direction they don’t want to take.

The only big men under contract on the roster currently are Nurkic and Zach Collins. The Blazers won’t be able to go into the next season with just the two big men on the roster, especially if Collins is the starting four.

If they can use either part of the mid-level exception or their trade exception to sign a forward, they can potentially use the leftover money to sign a backup big.

This backup big man is also important because of the health concerns of Collins and Nurkic. I don’t think Collins is injury prone overall as his dislocated shoulder was a freak injury. But because of the stress fracture in his foot and Nurkic’s injury history, they need a proper backup big man.