Portland Trail Blazers: Grading day one of 2021 Free Agency

The Portland Trail Blazers take another flier on Ben McLemore

After taking two swings on draft night, Neil Olshey and the Portland Trail Blazers stepped up to the plate again, unbothered by the possibility of striking out with their third attempt with Ben McLemore.

This is a low-risk move, so it can’t be judged too harshly. While the financial details have yet to be disclosed, I highly doubt McLemore will make more than the bare minimum on his deal.

McLemore is one of those players who haven’t panned out, but due to his blue-chip pedigree, has been given chance after chance. This latest signing will be his fifth contract with his fifth different team.

The hope is that he will provide streaky scoring in bunches off the bench with his incendiary shooting. He’s done that for every team he’s laced up for, but the trend has been that the bad games way outnumber the good ones.

Chances are, the Portland Trail Blazers won’t suddenly become the perfect destination for McLemore and he uncharacteristically becomes a reliable piece. It’s not impossible though.

Even if he doesn’t pan out, this signing doesn’t negatively impact the Blazers in any way and they might even be able to flip him to the next sucker team that believes in him for a small return.

Grade: C+