Blazers Reportedly Won’t Bring Back Robert Williams III After Ja Morant Trade Squeezes the Cap
Adding Ja Morant is not free. The Portland Trail Blazers are about to find that out with Robert Williams III.
Jason Quick of The Athletic reported Monday that the Blazers are not expected to retain the free agent center. Williams, per Quick, is looking for a contract in the range of $15 million per year, and that number is now outside what Portland can comfortably fit under the luxury tax after acquiring Morant.
The math is straightforward. Portland took on about $5 million more in salary in the Morant trade than they sent out. That extra bump ate into the flexibility they had to keep Williams at a competitive rate. Something has to give, and that something is Time Lord.
Williams, 28, spent the last three seasons in Portland. He was injured too often to be a foundation piece, but when he was on the floor, he was a difference maker. Last season, he averaged 6.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 59 games off the bench. He remains one of the best rim protectors in the league on a per-minute basis, and he is still capable of anchoring a good defense when healthy.
His injury history is what it is. He has not played a full season since his rookie year, and even then he was on a minutes restriction. Portland gave him plenty of runway to prove he could stay healthy, and he mostly delivered when it counted.
The bigger issue for the Blazers is what comes next. Rookie Yang Hansen, 21 years old and drafted in the middle of the first round, is now the presumptive backup to starting center Donovan Clingan. That is a very young frontcourt for a team that just committed to winning games with Ja Morant. Portland is going to need to find a cheap veteran backup center to keep the rotation viable in April.
Williams’ market is potentially very interesting. Any contender that needs rim protection off the bench is going to sniff around. The Los Angeles Lakers have been previously linked. The Cleveland Cavaliers could look at him as a defensive complement to Evan Mobley. The Denver Nuggets need help behind Nikola Jokic. The list goes on.
If Williams gets his $15 million a year, that would represent an enormous bet on his health from whichever team signs him. He has never played more than 62 games in a season, and he underwent a major knee procedure earlier in his career that continues to affect his availability.
Still, the numbers do not lie. His block rate is elite. His finishing at the rim is elite. His pick-and-roll defense holds up against the best guards in the league. If a team gets 55 games from him, that is a bargain even at $15 million.
Portland is not the team taking that bet. They swung big for Morant, and now they have to pay for that swing by letting a defensive anchor walk. That is the cost of doing business in a hard-capped league, and the Blazers apparently made peace with it before they ever pulled the trigger on the Morant trade.
Robert Williams will be somewhere else next year. And Portland will be scrambling to fill the middle behind Donovan Clingan.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
