Portland Trail Blazers: Rodney Hood had prior agreement on player option

Portland Trail Blazers beat writer Jason Quick has detailed how Rodney Hood said earlier in the year that he would opt out to sign a better deal this season.

The Athletic’s beat writer for the Portland Trail Blazers, Jason Quick, has detailed how Rodney Hood had an earlier prior agreement with the team around his one plus one deal.

In a Q&A with The Athletic, Quick said that Hood had signed a deal below market value in 2019 and that Hood had explained in an interview that he could have got more money elsewhere. He took the one-year deal with a second-year player option at just $6 million with the understanding that he would opt out of the second year of the deal and sign something worth more.

This is great insight as usual from the highly regarded Quick, and sheds light on why it seemed so strange that Hood would opt-out after tearing his Achilles. Usually, after such a serious injury, a player would have no market in free agency, so they would take the security of the second-year option to get some guaranteed money and a chance to play himself into his next contract.

The difficult thing for GM Neil Olshey and the Blazers, is giving Hood a long term or more lucrative contract after he has come off an Achilles tear. Though he may be worth this deal, it may be hard to tell if he is back to his best until they see him playing five on five scrimmages.

It has been announced previously that Hood would return healthy this season, but it remains to be seen if he has the strength and lift as a shooter and pullup threat that he had in his peak before his injury.

I trust Olsheys’s judgment and expect a multi-year deal for Hood in the $6 – $10 million range. If he is a 38 percent shooter at his age and can be 90 percent of the player he was, this would be a deal of value.

This is great intel from Jason Quick, it will now be interesting to see what type of deal Hood signs.