CBS Sports: Blazers Had Mediocre Offseason

The Portland Trail Blazers have not had a busy offseason, and that has triggered critics to say something.

CBS Sports writer Sam Quinn graded each team’s offseason and gave the Blazers a “C” for their efforts.

The Deni Avdija trade was deceptively valuable. Portland badly needed perimeter defense, and having a bit of spare playmaking lying around rarely hurts. Avdija just had a breakout season for the Wizards and is just starting an ultra-valuable four-year, $55 million rookie extension. He’s still young enough to be a core piece here. This is the sort of veteran the Blazers should be targeting: relatively young ones on cheap contracts.

The trouble here is that they have too many veterans who miss one or both of those boxes. Why is Jerami Grant still on this team? He’s 30, has four very expensive years left on his contract and is going to contribute a few extra wins that will only hurt the Blazers on lottery night. Donovan Clingan was the right pick at No. 7, but he’s now in a center rotation with Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams III both making big money. Even Anfernee Simons is redundant long-term if you assume that Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe are the backcourt of the future.

The Blazers are rebuilding. It’s just time they committed a bit more firmly to that. Players like Grant and Williams, at the very least, will not be part of the next great Blazers team. Pretending otherwise is a waste of everyone’s time.

The Blazers still have time to make some moves with two months of inactivity going on before training camp, but it appears Portland will keep its current squad together.

Trades may come before February’s deadline, but for now, Portland is keeping the team together and that could affect the organization’s rebuild long-term.