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Portland Trail Blazers: 5 biggest questions heading into the off-season

By Stevie Cozens

May 10, 2021; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic (27) scores a basket during the second half against Houston Rockets forward Anthony Lamb (33) at Moda Center. The Trail Blazers won the game 140-129. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports
May 10, 2021; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic (27) scores a basket during the second half against Houston Rockets forward Anthony Lamb (33) at Moda Center. The Trail Blazers won the game 140-129. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Portland Trail Blazers are about to move into their biggest off-season in recent memory. After a disappointing playoffs where they went down four games to two to a weakened Denver Nuggets outfit, head coach Terry Stotts left.

This, and then the narratives around trades for certain team members, means this will be an interesting off-season with many things to be decided.

Here are the five biggest questions heading into the Portland Trail Blazers off-season

Portland Trail Blazers off-season question #1. Will they guarantee the final year of Jusuf Nurkic’s contract?

This one seems straightforward, but it really isn’t. When Jusuf Nurkic signed his four-year extension back in 2018, the Blazers tacked on a partial guarantee to the last season. I assume because of his injuries, and the chance that he may have had a long-term injury at the end of the contract, this partial guarantee gave the Blazers some insurance if they needed to cut Nurkic.

They obviously didn’t need to do anything of the sort, as Nurkic has been one of the Blazers best players of the last four years. But, the question of the partial guarantee still stands.

The number he has guaranteed is just $4 million.

Here’s what the Blazers can do. They can choose not to guarantee this number up to the full $12 million when the time comes at the start of July. Then they could re-sign him to a new deal or let him walk altogether. There’s no way that the Blazers could replace him with no cap space available, so it’s doubtful that they let him walk for nothing.

There’s a chance that he could be re-signed to a new deal, one that reflects his place on the team and his current market value.

It’s hard to gauge what that number would be on a new deal, but I assume it would be around $12 – $16 million.

The second option would be to guarantee the deal and then let Nurkic hit free agency in 2022.

This would mean that Nurkic would be a flight risk in free agency, but if the Blazers had a good season and a stable relationship with the coach and front office, there’s no reason he shouldn’t come back.

The decision on this guarantee is July 1st.