Bobby Marks’ 2025 Portland Trail Blazers Offseason Guide | NBA on ESPN

Bobby Marks’ 2025 Portland Trail Blazers Offseason Guide | NBA on ESPN

all right a happy Monday Hopefully everyone had a uh a great weekend and uh we’ve got a NBA Finals that’s 1-1 heading to Indiana on Wednesday night Uh we are going to do an offseason video Um that is just my dog coughing She’s got a little bit of a collapsed trachea that she’s going to get taken a look at later this afternoon So if you hear a honking noise that is just my dog Um anyway we are going to do an offseason video on the Portland Trailblazers We’ve got a few teams left I think we’ve got Portland We have uh New Orleans I think uh the Wizards Um I always want to say Washington and I think Malikica Andrews is going to make fun of me Few teams left as far as lottery teams get done If you go on NBA do NBA if you go on ESPN.com today you will find an article that we uh we have written It’s the 10 teams and it’s the 10 quotes that could define the 2025 offseason So we’ve basically uh picked out 10 teams and we’ve taken 10 quotes from their executive or perhaps Kevin Durant or Victor and basically kind of lays out their uh their off seasonason and why those quotes could uh could impact their offseason Certainly Denver yokage lack of depth and what you can do to go out and fix that But we are going to do a video on uh we were going to do New Orleans and then I was like you know what there’s a guy on Twitter and I really never read the comments but every time I post something and it’s not Portland He’s like when’s the Trailblazers coming so here’s to you We have a Trailblazers offseason video You can go read the article on espn.com They are one of the 2018 teams that we have out there When you look at Portland um 21 and 61 a year ago 36 and 46 um this past season I think the two words when you’re certainly rebuilding and it’s they’ve been rebuilding quite a bit in Portland certainly post CJ McCollum certainly pass post Dame Lillard Um when you when you go through a season and you you are a plus 15 in wins the two most important things that you can sell to fans is hope and progress Um and you can add foundation in there And I think uh Portland accomplished that this season certainly where they were and where they where uh where they finished It’s interesting Portland did not go out last off season and made any big splashes in free agency as far as go out and signing a player Um they made the Denny trade the night of the night of the draft And at the time I believe they were highly ridiculed because they were saying “Well why would you trade a draft pick another pick that was going to uh Washington for Danny Aia?” Um and as it turned out the trade turned out to be terrific um one of the bright spots as far as from the offseason transactions of you know last season we get caught up and certainly there’s this media perception we get caught off and we uh we applaud when teams make these big splashes but you know Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City and Denny Aia to Portland were probably two of the bigger better transactions last year now not that’s not to say that the Wizards made a bad decision here they were certainly looking as far as how do do you pick up an expiring contract in Malcolm Brogden and how do you pick up an additional draft asset and how do you pick up another first round pick um in this process here so let’s look at Portland as far as where we where they’re heading into the offseason here Not many free agents on this uh this roster Delino B and Ryan Rupert uh has got team option Matis Dyl’s got a player option Jabari Walker is a restricted free agent They’ve got a couple of their two-way players here The big thing um there’s a couple big things for um where Portland is going here I think I don’t want to say it’s a make or break off seasonason but it’s it’s basically we’re going to get to a point where it’s like you’re kind of like trying to pick a direction I think there’s so much parody in this league Um and if you finished 40 and 42 next year or 41 and 41 I think it would be considered a disappointment But you basically do have to make a decision because you have a ton of veterans that are coming up on expiring contracts When you look at Anthony Simon’s Thyball if his option is exercise I would say where his number is and where free agency is Um it’s hard for me to think that maybe he can go out and get that number Um his contract uh and we’re going to put out the um the I know everybody likes it when we cut and paste the Excel sheet uh Matis is at 11.5 million So basically if you’re a team out there you’re giving him most of your non-taxman level exception and you’re going to hard your cap yourself Down the road probably next week we’re going to put out a video going over the bandwidths of teams the four layers and explain a little bit more about the apron and and the hard cap and what teams have and exceptions here But Simons um who’s certainly worthy of an extension uh Thyel Robert Williams and DeAndre Aton those are your big numbers Uh big numbers as far as where you are with um Williams who is at um 13.3 Uh Simons is at 277 DeAndre is at 35.5 Those are all on expiring contracts You’ve got to figure out do you can you flip them for something else is it worth extending i would think Simons would be the one out of the four That would make sense especially when you have Williams and Eaton and you drafted Donovan Klingan last year Um that is your that’s a decision that you’re going to have to make because you’re going to add a lottery pick uh to a roster that returns 13 players That’s assuming if all the options are exercised here So you’re going to need to um I’m sorry my phone is ringing you’re going to need to um balance out what your roster is going to be as far as u with those expiring contract As I said you got 13 players under contract you’re 11 million below the tax 17 but you’re in good shape from a financial standpoint below the tax below the apron Um that includes all the all the players opting in or uh exercising the option I think your front office priority um two sets of priorities this off season Uh the first was you you uh extended Chanty Bilips which was the smart move based on considering where this roster went and where it has the potential to to go Uh you do have a defensive identity under BIPS something that every team needs as far as where they were and where they are right now Um but let’s see here Um as we said they increased their win totals by 14 games without signing a free agent That’s pretty impressive That’s an impressive stat there Then the second one of course is going to be the clarity clarity on your expiring contracts here Your extension candidates to watch that This is where I’m kind of circled in Portland Uh Tumani Kamaro and Shaden Sharp Kumar is an interesting situation He’s kind of like where Andrew uh Nemhard was with Indiana last year So Kamar’s got a $2.2 million non-G guaranteed contract That guar contract will become guaranteed And then he’s got a 2.4 4 million team option in 2627 So you have two options here You have the option of not extending him and basically letting him um let you go into next off seasonason you decline his team option and then you um and then you decline the option and that would make him a restricted free agent Um the problem with that is basically you have to have a side deal with the agent because there are a ton of teams with cap space next year You’re looking at $15 million Okay What’s challenging is if you’re Tumani Kamar and it’s similar to Andrew Nhard is is that um you’re capped as far as where you can go Uh four years $89 million that’s the max It’s 140% of the uh average player salary It’s 1819 million right there It also there is the question if you’re in Portland how much do you value cap space because you’re going to have a ton next season You only have um about $82 million in contracts including that Kamar team option here How much do you value cap space because what you could do is you could leave his free agent hold go out and use cap space and then circle back and sign him to a new contract here If you sign him to a an extension that 2 million24 team option gets basically replaced with a $19 million salary So you’re going to lose 17 $18 million in cap space He is a heck of a player Uh we don’t need to go through the stats here He is well worth 4 for89 if that is what is going to be presented But you have to look at as far as what the options are going to be as far as with Kamar Sharp is interesting here because um the body of work certainly from an injury standpoint uh as I say he’s one of the more intriguing rookie extension candidates because of his upside Uh missed last season due to uh la most of last season to an abductor injury Average careerhigh 17.8 points Okay Came off the bench in all but four games So you’re basically any Shaden Sharp extension is really we we we throw off throw out most of what he’s done or what he hasn’t done the last three years and you basically take it’s an an upside type extension as far as where do you see his role how does he fit in what happens with Simons um he’s another guy that um his is more interesting because his cap hold is at $25.2 million I think his number is right around in that 23 to 25 Restricted free agency is a bear He’s not a guy that’s going to come off the board right away when free agency starts And he’s extensionable eligible to um negotiate a new deal right after the finals are over Um I don’t see him as a $30 million player Um it would be surprising to me if he is Um he as I said he’s a restricted free agent but he could go into restricted free agency and he could have a terrific year Um so that is kind of where you are trying to figure out where your compromises is going to be I know we put a lot of excuse me a lot of stock excuse me in the salary cap and how it’s going to increase As I’ve said before I think you have to pump the brakes that the cap’s going to increase 10% every year It’s going to go up 10% this year and it’s likely going to go up 10% next year but it’s I think it’s going to start to flatline a little bit based on some of these regional sports networks and what’s going to happen with them Um so you’re basically Camaro and Sharp Those are your two extension guys If you want to carve into cap space for next summer that’s this decision I think Camaro is easier for me I would sacrifice excuse me cap space to sign him on a fourth for $89 million extension here Your other extension candidates Jabari Walker through June 30th Robert Williams Simons Aon Thyel Rupert uh team needs and certainly internal development of their younger players your draft assets You have the you have the 11th pick in the draft Uh you can certainly get good value or maybe you move off to try to get something into the future Remember you still you owe Chicago top 14 protected first that goes through 2028 28 Um so that limits as far as what you can trade in the future Remember two years after your pick conveyed um is how the rules work You have the 2029 most in least favorable of their own Boston and Milwaukee have the right to swap first rounders with Milwaukee in 28 and 30 Uh swap rights in 30 but we won’t need to go through that You’ve got five seconds draft asset wise You’re in really good shape All in all I think things are in in solid footing when you’re in Portland Now the hard part comes with you go from 21 to 36 and now taking that next step and do you have faith if you can take that next step without going out and signing a free agent this off seasonason similar to what happened last year do you feel like with Scoot with Donovan with Shaden with um some of your younger players Chris Murray um did can you take can that group take you on a uh another can that get you to another six or seven wins which probably gets you into the lottery um into the playing excuse me But you do have to make a decision as far as where you’re going to go with some of those uh players on uh on the last year of your contract those expiring contracts Listen we live in a day and age where even if you’re on an expiring contract doesn’t mean you have to move off them right away I think you’ve sometimes uh flex financial flexibility is more important as far as taking back a bad contract even if it comes with a draft pick uh because you do have plenty of those moving forward So that is it on Portland We will talk soon Oh the other thing too is certainly Shamsa talked about the ownership situation Um as far as we’re probably going to likely see a new owner and how much of an impact that has Listen Joe Cronin and their GM is locked into a new contract Chanty Phillips is locked in I think the biggest thing with when you switch when you change gears with owners and I said this on their radio network here is really what that person can bring in provide as far as from from a resource standpoint from a practice facility from the amenities from building out the staff from an arena improvement here I don’t care if you’re Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos um and you have billions of dollars or you’re Elon Musk God bless that guy in the news lately Um it doesn’t matter when it comes to building a roster Like I lived it through MueL Proof It doesn’t matter if you’re worth $50 billion or $10 billion There are rules in place and you’re not going to go out This does not allow you to go out and outspend your competition So that’s just a little bit on the uh on the ownership sale and everything that’s going to go on there We will talk soon We’ll have another video up um probably maybe today or in the next day or two But have a great day That is the Portland Trailblazers Give me NBA on the guitar

Bobby Marks weighs in on how the Portland Trail Blazers should look to handle this offseason.
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