According to reports, unrestricted free agent center Festus Ezeli has agreed to a deal with the Portland Trail Blazers. The new contract will pay him $14.73 million over two years.
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical broke the news on Thursday night:
Free agent center Festus Ezeli has reached agreement on a two-year deal with Portland, league source tells @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 8, 2016
Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated then reported the contract to be worth $14.73 million in total, rather than the $16 million that Wojnarowski originally reported:
Festus Ezeli's Blazers deal is actually $7.4 million the first year with a team option of $7.33 million in the second year, a source said.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) July 8, 2016
Report: Festus Ezeli Signs with Portland Trail Blazers
Ezeli’s contract will take him through the end of the 2017-18 season. Ezeli was originally a restricted free agent, but the Golden State Warriors renounced their rights to him once Kevin Durant agreed to join Golden State, making Ezeli an unrestricted free agent. The Warriors couldn’t afford to re-sign Ezeli once Durant had committed to signing with them for about $27 million per year.
Ezeli averaged 7.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game last season for the 73-9 Warriors. He is a quality backup center who provides a strong presence on the glass and in the paint defensively. Offensively, Ezeli has proven he has a nice touch around the rim; he is an excellent finisher. In recent years Ezeli has missed significant time due to multiple injuries to his knee that have limited him to just 46 regular season games in each of the past two seasons. Hopefully injuries don’t continue to impact Ezeli’s career in the future, but his injury history is quite concerning. Despite missing time and playing just 14.1 minutes per game when healthy, Ezeli has been a key piece off the bench to the Warriors historic success. At age 26 entering his fourth NBA season, Ezeli should continue to improve on both ends of the floor as long as he is healthy. If Ezeli does manage to avoid injury, this deal will be a bargain for the Blazers, as it’ll pay him less than half the annual salary that inferior centers such as Timofey Mozgov got earlier in free agency.
Ezeli should see plenty of playing time in a rather thin Portland frontcourt, which currently consists of Mason Plumlee, Noah Vonleh, and Ed Davis. The Blazers will look to build off of last year’s surprise playoff appearance, in which they lost to Ezeli’s former team – the Warriors – in the second round of the playoffs.
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