This season the Portland Trail Blazers found their center of the future (and the present) in Jusuf Nurkic.
Which makes the next step fairly obvious: Portland will not pick up the option on Festus Ezeli for next season, GM Neil Olshay confirmed at the team exit meetings Tuesday.
Olshey says Festus Ezeli will not be on the @trailblazers roster next season. #RipCity pic.twitter.com/bWVSHulCHQ
— NBC Sports Northwest (@NBCSNorthwest) April 25, 2017
Portland signed Ezeli on what they thought was a great contract (one-year, $7.4 million, with a team option for the second year) because he was coming off knee surgery last summer. However, Ezeli was never healthy, needed a second surgery, and never got on the court. After taking it slow over last summer he practiced with the team twice in mid-October, there was more swelling, so he pulled back.
This summer Ezeli will not draw any guaranteed money from teams, but some teams may take a look at him. Athletic bigs get a lot of chances in the NBA.