Portland Trail Blazers back up big man option four – Semi Ojeleye
Semi Ojeleye is a small ball big man who stands six-foot-six and is 26-years-old. Ojeleye has played all of his career for the Boston Celtics, where has was a strong backup power forward who could guard fours and some fives, while knocking down threes from the corner.
Still only 26, Ojeleye is like a lite version of PJ Tucker, who does the small things on a basketball court like screening, boxing out, and playing strong man defense.
He hasn’t set the world on fire in Boston, only playing a maximum of 17 minutes per game, but the Blazers need more role players who can play both ends of the court, even if it means they can’t create their own shot.
Ojeleye is a stout 245 pounds, so he could play a small-ball five next to Covington, or play against big lineups alongside Nurkic.
His market in free agency is only likely to be the minimum or slightly above, but this is the type of player the Blazers need to add with the limited resources they have to spend.
None of these options are star players, or are huge names, but they add value on both ends while also being cheap. The Blazers don’t have the resources, so they need to go down the bargain route to add names like these.