Trail Blazers Signing First Free Agent of 2024 with Bizarre Addition: Report

Is this really the move Portland needs to make right now?

Nov 3, 2023; Portland, Oregon, USA; The Portland Trail Blazers logo at center court before the game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports / Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

A month into NBA free agency, with most impact players off the board, the Portland Trail Blazers have made their first addition in the process.

Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the team is signing free agent point guard Devonte' Graham to a one-year deal. Terms of the contract have not been divulged.

Given the Trail Blazers' reported reticence to acquire a much better veteran point guard, D'Angelo Russell, in a rumored trade to offload Jerami Grant, it's a puzzling move. Portland already has several young, intriguing pieces in the backcourt. Why would it clog up its rotation with aging veteran depth?

On its own, the deal doesn't make a ton of sense. But it seems quite possible that Portland general manager Joe Cronin will look to offload one or more of its extant guards. The most understandable fit would be 6-foot-3 veteran shooting guard Anfernee Simons, already on his second contract. He's seemingly plateaued a bit as a player. Simons may be a talented scorer on a lottery-bound, but he's a poor defender, and it seems quite likely his eventual future on a good team is as a sixth man.

Across 46 healthy games with Portland last season, the 25-year-old logged career-high averages of 22.6 points on a .430/.385/.916 slash line, 5.5 assists (against 2.7 turnovers), 3.6 rebounds and 0.5 steals a night. He's still owed two years and $53.6 million on his current deal.

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Meanwhile, Graham is a solid energy scorer, and given that he's likely earning far less than Simons, it stands to reason that he would have no qualms with coming off the bench as Portland looks to develop young lottery picks Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson.

Graham has most recently suited up for the San Antonio Spurs, appearing in 46 contests acros the lottery-bound club's last two seasons. The 6-foot-1 Kansas product appeared in just 23 games for the tanking Spurs last year, averaging 5.0 points on .352/.301/.813 shooting splits, 2.1 assists and 1.6 rebounds.

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