The Oklahoma City Thunder have declined Kenrich Williams' $7.2 million team option, making him an unrestricted free agent. That opens the door for the Portland Trail Blazers to address two glaring roster issues: shooting and wing depth.
This decision makes sense for OKC, given their roster and financial crunch. After picking up Lu Dort's option and declining Williams', they're now roughly $7.1 million above the second apron with 14 players. They could even potentially duck it depending on what they decide to do with Nikola Topic and Thomas Sorber.
But this offseason, the Thunder's losses have been other teams' gains. They've already parted ways with Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe, sending the former to Atlanta and the latter to Detroit. Given their unprecedented depth, those may have been minor losses for the Thunder, but great opportunities for the Hawks and Pistons to land key role players who can benefit from increased roles elsewhere.
They were also two players the Blazers should've targeted for cheap (though Portland did manage to quietly steal another member of the Thunder organization with their under-the-radar signing of seven-footer Branden Carlson).
Portland needs to target Kenrich Williams in Day 2 of NBA free agency
Like Wiggins and Joe, Williams is another player who was buried on OKC's bench that could be far more impactful elsewhere. You know, on a normal-looking NBA roster. Last season he averaged 6.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in just 15.3 minutes per game. Most importantly for Portland, he connected on 38.8 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc.
The Blazers went into the offseason knowing that shooting was a top priority. They contradicted that direction with the surprising blockbuster trade of Ja Morant. It's a reasonable flyer on a team in need of more star power, considering they moved another bad contract in Jerami Grant and didn't have to throw in any draft compensation. That said, it's a wonky fit.
Hopefully, more moves are on the horizon to make better sense of the direction this roster is headed. As currently constructed, Portland looks like a team full of point guards and centers. That's problematic in the general roster balance sense, but especially given how valuable wings are in today's NBA.
Adding Williams in free agency wouldn't immediately solve the Blazers' strange roster, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction. Entering Day 2 of free agency, their best bet is to try to make a move like this to win on the margins and sort out the rest later.
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