Portland Trail Blazers: Free agent forwards to consider
Carmelo Anthony, Portland Trail Blazers.
Internal free agents
Off the top, there are two internal free agents Portland can lockup rather quickly and inexpensively. Carmelo Anthony resurrected his career last season with the Blazers. He stated several times that he likes Portland and wants to finish his career with the Trail Blazers.
Anthony is 36-years-old and nowhere close to his prime. However, he is someone who contributes on both ends of the floor as well as nailing clutch threes. Melo knows the deal; he wants the one thing he doesn’t have, a championship ring. The Portland Trail Blazers give him a good shot at it, so he’ll play for close to the veteran minimum as he did last season.
Wenyen Gabriel is not a household name outside of Portland, Oregon. Blazers fans know that when called upon to step up in the bubble, he did just that. The 6-9 Sudanese power forward via the University of Kentucky plays hard and knows his role. As a restricted free agent, Gabriel doesn’t have much bargaining power. He’ll get a very modest raise over the $1.75M earned last year to be the team’s ninth or tenth player.
As mentioned earlier, Whiteside and Hood likely aren’t coming back. The fates of Moses Brown, Caleb Swanigan, and Jaylen Hoard are undecided. It’s debatable whether or not Portland might be better off by replacing the end of their bench with other players.