Portland Trail Blazers: Offseason Summary 2020

After a relatively bad regular season, the Trail Blazers found a way to creep into the playoffs in the 2019-20 season. After being knocked out by the Lakers, there were moves that needed to be made in the offseason.

Over the past few weeks, Portland has been making some of the most impressive offseason moves. Putting an emphasis on adding wing defenders, their new-look roster looks to be improved in comparison to last season.

Trail Blazers Roster Additions

Biggest Acquisitions

• Robert Covington: Long wings who can defend at a high level and shoot a respectile clip from beyond the arc are becoming extremely valuable in the NBA. Covington is one of the better two-way wings in the league at this point, which is why teams have been willing to give up assets to acquire him over the past few seasons. He will instantly improve Portland’s defense as well as give them more space on offense with his ability to stretch the floor.
• Harry Giles: Still just 22 years old, Giles is younger than some of the guys who were drafted just a few weeks ago. Although he has a history of injuries and hasn’t been great to this point in his career, he might have been the most attractive free agent when it came to age and untapped potential.

Trail Blazers Roster Subtractions

Biggest Losses

• Hassan Whiteside: Whiteside had a great year with the Trai Blazers last season, pulling down the most total rebounds and scoring the third-most total points on the season. With Jusuf Nurkic healthy once again, Whiteside did become less valuable late in the season. However, his ability to stuff the stat sheet will be missed.
• Trevor Ariza: While Ariza didn’t have the best year of his career in Portland, he was still one of their more important pieces last season. Now in the final years of his career at age 35, Covington will look to play a similar role, while also having the ability to be even more productive than Ariza was.

All NBA Team Offseason Summaries