Trail Blazers

Can the Trail Blazers retain Norman Powell after the season's over?

/ by Jonathan Warner
Trail Blazers

With the trade deadline officially passed, the Trail Blazers made a move that was unexpected by many fans.

The Blazers traded away Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood for Toronto Raptors sixth-year shooting guard Norman Powell.

And the move itself provides more firepower for the Blazers on offense.

This season, Powell is averaging a career-best in points per game at just under 20, a career-high in threes per game with just under three a game, and a career-best in three-point shooting at 43.9 percent.

He is having a breakout season, and now he is with the Blazers to help add to that.

With both Trent Jr. and Hood now gone, the Blazers don’t have to worry about contracts for those two.

But now, the offseason turns towards Powell and if they can work something out if he plays well together with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.

Blazers general manager Neil Olshey joined NBC Sports Blazer insider Dwight Jaynes and discussed a major topic at hand:

Will the Blazers try to retain Powell after the season?

I hope so. One of the biggest things we have talked about since I have been here is that we want players who want to be here. And what we have to do is create an environment where Norman wants to be here. Those are all offseason discussions. 

Neil Olshey

The hope is, for Portland at least, that Powell plays well with this roster and grows to love the city of Portland.

Olshey believes that if Powell sees what the community brings, maybe something can be worked out where he does want to stay and negotiations can be discussed.

"At the end of the day, we are trying to find guys who are prioritizing  basketball," Olshey said. "The guys we have been able to retain as free agents, bring guys back, guys who have fallen in love with Portland, it starts with the basketball world and then moves into our community."

 

Olshey does understand there is a risk that Powell does not want to come back and looks elsewhere. But sometimes in the business that he is in, a leap of faith is necessary.

There is risk in everything, but at the end of the day we have an obligation to put the best team on the floor. Sometimes there is a leap of faith in all of this, we have done this for nine years. We have made the playoffs seven years in a row, we have found hidden gems in the second round, we have found valued contracts, we have convinced some guys to come back and others have left. And we think right now we have as a competitive of a roster as we probably had since our third year here priory to Wes Matthews getting injured. This is as deep of a team, as versatile of a team, as high powered of an offensive, and with the defensive potential, to be an impact team in the playoffs.

Neil Olshey

Powell is In the third year of a 4-year, $42M contract with next season being a player-option.

He is on the books for $10.8M this season.

Olshey will have to figure out if Powell is someone that he wants to keep on this Blazer team once the season is over.