The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t waste any time signing contracts, with Thursday as the first day NBA teams could sign free agents ahead of the 2022-23 season. The Blazers quickly bolstered both their backcourt and frontcourt with three signed contracts, according to multiple news reports.
The Portland Trail Blazers have signed former Golden State Warriors guard Gary Payton II, shown here shooting in against the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of basketball's NBA Finals.
Jed Jacobsohn / AP
Portland reached contracts with two breakout guards from last season: one who was a Blazer last season and one who won an NBA championship just last month. At the same time, the Blazers brought back a centerpiece of the team’s interior.
According to multiple news outlets, the Blazers have reached a three-year deal with Gary Payton II worth $28 million. Payton II is entering his seventh season in the NBA, after his most successful season in the league last year, hitting career highs in categories such as minutes played and points and rebounds per game. In a reserve role for the Golden State Warriors last season, Payton II proved his value in the playoffs as well. He scored 15 points in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, a 104-94 win over the Boston Celtics.
Gary Payton is a familiar name to Northwest sports fans. Payton II is the son of NBA Hall of Famer Gary Payton, who played most of his career for the Seattle SuperSonics. Both Payton and Payton II played college basketball at Oregon State University. The younger Payton played two years as a Beaver, averaging 14.7 points per game.
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The Blazers also re-signed a breakout player of their own from last season, by reaching a four-year, $100 million contract with guard Anfernee Simons. In a season complicated by injuries and trades, Simons was one of Portland’s most consistent scorers and playmakers, averaging career highs in multiple categories, including points (17.3 per game) and assists (3.9 per game), in just under 30 minutes per game.
Jusuf Nurkic signed a contract worth $70 million over four years, according to multiple news outlets. When healthy, Nurkic can be an integral part of the Blazers on both offense and defense, averaging 15 points and 11 rebounds per game. But the last three seasons, Nurkic has missed a significant number of games due to injury, weakening the team’s frontcourt.
The three moves are a continuation of an active offseason for the Trail Blazers, who missed the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2013. Under General Manager Joe Cronin, and with the Blazers’ reportedly receiving purchase offers, the front office has emphasized an interest in significantly upgrading the team ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Cronin has noted that there are three ways to improve an NBA roster: through the draft, through trades and by signing free agents. The Blazers have now done all three, and there’s still a lot of offseason left.
The Blazers drafted Shaedon Sharpe, an enigmatic high school phenom who didn’t play competitive basketball last year after enrolling at University of Kentucky, as well as Jabari Walker, who played two years at University of Colorado.
Just days before the NBA Draft, Cronin used financial flexibility gained from a previous trade to bring in Jerami Grant from the Detroit Pistons. Grant has played both forward positions and he averaged 19 points per game for the struggling Pistons last season.
For those keeping track, the Blazers have added three players whose fathers had lengthy NBA careers: Payton II, aka the son of “The Glove”; Walker, whose father Samaki Walker played 10 years for the six different teams; and Grant, the son of former Blazer Harvey Grant.