Within 24 hours, NBA Free Agency will begin, and teams will start signing players right away.
For the teams that have cap space, large amounts of assets, and picks, this will be an exciting time.
For the Portland Trail Blazers and their fans though, this will be a more subdued period.
The Blazers have very limited assets to use in terms of being able to get better this summer.
What the Portland Trail Blazers have to spend when Free Agency opens
Asset #1 – Norman Powell’s bird rights
Norman Powell is the Blazers’ best chip and a key for their summer and the free agency period. Because Norm played the minimum three-year period on one team or under one contract or multiple teams, the Blazers now have his bird rights.
This means they can go over the salary cap to bring him back. If Norm left for nothing, this would be a disaster though. By bringing him back, they can possibly initiate a CJ McCollum trade with Powell as the insurance. Powell’s bird rights are the Blazers’ best asset going into free agency.
Asset #2 – Taxpayer / Midlevel / Biannual Exceptions
The Blazers used their midlevel exception last year to bring in Derrick Jones Jr, but teams get to use that exception every year. The issue the Blazers have though is the luxury tax. Last season, the Blazers didn’t want to pay it, and this year they may go down the same road. If they don’t want to pay the tax then they will have to limit their spending which could mean not giving out the entire midlevel.
If they go into the tax, then they will have the taxpayer exception which is $6.6 million, if they stay out of the tax then that amount will depend on the number they spend on bringing back Powell.
The bi-annual is also there, of $3.7 million but that triggers the hard cap.
The most they will likely have to spend, under these three exceptions, if they don’t want to trigger the hard cap, is around the $6.6 million mark. This $6.6 million can be spent on one player or multiple players.
Asset #3 – Veterans minimum
The veteran’s minimum is its own exception and can be used multiple times to sign players. As long as the team isn’t hard-capped, then they can use this exception to sign any player to a league agreed amount.
Carmelo Anthony and Harry Giles were examples of a player signed to this exception last season. The salary number is set by the league prior to the season, based on years of service in the NBA.
Back-up / bench players and veterans usually agree on this amount.
As you can see there isn’t a lot available for the Blazers in free agency. They are probably better to make a big splash in a trade, as they can then reduce salary and potentially use more of the mid-level exception. Neil Olshey isn’t known for big off-season trades, so the chances of this aren’t high, but the team can improve significantly more in a trade than it can in free agency.