Portland needs to blaze a trail for these free agents to return to Rip City
By Jacob Dazzeo
The Portland Trail Blazers have long been a team that has had success in the NBA. With stars like Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum leading the way, the Blazers had been a perennial playoff team. They still might make the play-in tournament this season where anything can happen.
But the Blazers have struggled to make a deep playoff run in recent years, and they are in danger of losing some key players this summer.
This offseason, the Blazers are faced with some important decisions. Several of their key players are set to become free agents, and the team must decide whether to re-sign them or let them go.
With the offseason rapidly approaching, it’s time to take a look at some of the most critical free agents that the Blazers need to re-sign to blaze a trail to success in the NBA.
Priority No.1: Re-sign Jerami Grant
When the Blazers sent a 2025 first-round pick (via Milwaukee), the 36th pick of the 2022 NBA Draft, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2026-second round pick to Detroit for Jerami Grant, they had every intention of keeping him in Rip City for the foreseeable future.
Grant is a key piece to building a team around Damian Lillard that can compete for an NBA title.
In Grant’s first season with the Blazers, he’s averaging 20.7 points per game while shooting a career-best 48 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from three. He’s averaging 35.6 minutes per game and playing strong defense.
Earlier in the season, he was trending toward his first all-star appearance, and at 28 years old, he’s in his prime.
The Blazers already offered Grant a four-year, $112 million extension, the max contract possible at the time, but Grant said he was focused on the season and would wait to sign an extension.
Grant: “I’m kind of focused on the season at hand right now. Probably will wait until after the season and talk to (GM) Joe (Cronin). Everything is good. I like it here. Really enjoying it. So, yeah … we will discuss it when it’s time.” (2/3)
— Jason Quick (@jwquick) January 31, 2023
After July 1, the Blazers can offer Grant a max contract of five years and $233 million. Other teams will only be able to offer him a max of four years and $174 million.
The Blazers need to offer Grant the max contract possible and keep him in Portland as an essential piece next to Lillard and whichever superstar they can potentially acquire this offseason.