Trail Blazers News: Portland Likely To Let Free Agent Big Man Walk This Summer

Would Joe Cronin be making a mistake if he did this?

Mar 22, 2024; Portland, Oregon, USA; LA Clippers forward Paul George (13) goes up for a dunk against Portland Trail Blazers center Moses Brown (10). / Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

The Portland Trail Blazers appear poised to move on from deep-bench reserve center Moses Brown, per Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. Team president Joe Cronin inked him to a $2.2 million veteran's minimum deal for this season.

The 7-foot-2 big man out of UCLA, 24, played in just 22 contests during Portland's ill-fated 2023-24 campaign, during which the club went 21-61 overall.

Brown served as essentially an emergency backup, behind starter Deandre Ayton and chief reserve Duop Reath, who graduated from a two-way contract onto a standard deal and essentially lapped Brown as the team's primary backup center. Robert Williams III, injured for all but six games, also looks to factor into Chauncey Billups' rotations ahead of Brown (and probably ahead of Reath, for however long Williams' body holds up).

This past season, Brown averaged 3.4 points on 50.8 percent shooting from the floor, along with 3.9 boards.

"Brown provides emergency size but is extremely limited offensively. Of his 65 shot attempts, only 11 came outside of five feet and he missed seven. He made 29 of 54 (53.7 percent) inside of five feet. A sign that Brown’s shooting touch won’t improve much is found in his 29 percent free-throw shooting percentage (9 of 31) last season," Fentress writes. "The Blazers would probably be better served to use Brown’s roster spot on a younger player with greater upside."

After going undrafted by the Bruins, Brown first linked up with Portland for the 2019-20 season on a two-way contract. He inked another two-way deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder the next season, but his solid play earned him a promotion to the club's standard roster late into the season. He was flipped twice in the summer of 2021, eventually landing with the Dallas Mavericks, who waived him midway through the season. He inked a pair of 10-day deals with the Cleveland Cavaliers and eventually joined the club for the rest of the season.

He later enjoyed stints with the Los Angeles Clippers, the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, on two-way or 10-day deals, before returning to Portland on a standard contract.

Though still young and clearly raw, Brown seems likely to wind up somewhere else next season, on yet another 10-day or two-way contract.

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