Game Day: Oklahoma City Thunder seek to Blaze new trails, Dec 13

Understandably, the Blazers weren’t keen to lose any more developing talents following the summer of 2015-16 when LaMarcus Aldridge, Wes Matthew, Nic Batum, Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo all left town.  Given that situation, GM Neil Olshey chose to extend, re-sign, and match offers given to player who had helped the Blazers reach the second round of the 2016 playoffs.

Additionally, Olshey added two free agents he thought would address issues on depth. Portland currently sports the second highest team salary: $120,139,444.00 (behind only Cleveland).

Realistic or not, expectations both internally and externally are for the squad to surpass last season’s achievements. To date, the team is falling short of meeting that goal, especially since free agents Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli haven’t delivered. In Turner’s case his need to have the ball in his hand doesn’t marry well with utilizing him alongside the starting star backcourt who also are ball dominant players. As for Ezeli, his knee issues continue hampering his ability to even get on the court.

Where Olshey did succeed was in re-upping core players like McCollum, Crabbe, and Harkless who continue to grow within the system and produce for the Blazers.

Here’s the list of movement from the offseason:

Incoming:

• Evan Turner  4-year, $70M exits Celtics
• Festus Ezeli on a 2-year $15M leaves Warriors

Exiting:

• Gerald Henderson 2-year, $18M deal to 76ers
• Brian Roberts on a 1 year minimum contract to Charlotte

Re-upping:

• Re-signed forward Meyers Leonard to a reported four-year, $41 million deal
• Allen Crabbe 4-year, $75M  (Blazers reverses initial decision and matched Nets offer)
• C.J. McCollum a 4-year extension of $106M
• Maurice Harkless finally locked up his contract on a 4-year, $42M deal.