The Trail Blazers Should Bring Back Gerald Henderson

交易后，小径开拓者需要一个新的备份射击护罩Allen Crabbe.to theBrooklyn Nets。Armed with an open roster spot, and lacking veteran influence, President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey could look to a familiar face to replace Crabbe.

杰拉德·亨德森, only a year removed from his brief tenure in Portland, is still a free agent after parting ways with the76人队。本赛季29岁的卫队开始为费城41场比赛，但在他两年的1800万美元的最后一年之前发布了保证。鉴于剩下的少数球队有盖帽空间，燃烧者对守卫的深度的表观需求有可能对双方有益。

The move seems obvious enough that evenESPN's Kevin Peltonbrought up the subject on Tuesday:

The Blazers may hope to replace Crabbe with development from internal candidates杰克门外汉和帕特康顿。。。The Blazers also clear a roster spot here and could even dip into their taxpayer midlevel exception to sign a replacement at lower cost. A return for Gerald Henderson, who played well in Portland in 2015-16 and remains unsigned several weeks into free agency, would make sense for both sides.

The Blazers want to return to the playoffs next season, so adding a player with Henderson's experience is a better alternative than banking on the unproven Connaughton and Layman.

汉德在’s Fit in Portland

The void left behind by Crabbe is considerable. He averaged 28.5 minutes and 10.7 points per game last season, all while maintaining impressive shooting percentages. Henderson might not be able to fill those shoes completely, but he would be significantly cheaper, and does have a set of skills that can help the team

亨德森是一个可执行的后卫，一个来自基线的激烈的攻击者，他是来自角落的一个体面的3点射手。在波特兰的同时，他的角落3指针的44.4％，这比2016 - 17年从拐角处射击的速度更高。他的角落射击去年击中了36.7％，但亨德森可能恢复到燃烧者系统中的40％百分之一 - 这是一个里程碑，他在过去的四个赛季中的三个赛中出现了三个。

除了在法庭上的契约之外，亨德森也将返回他非常重要的团队。2016年4月，亨德森分享了这一点Joe Freeman of The Oregonian:

“我很想回到这里，”他说。“如果他们想要我回来，我们可以提出一个有道理的合同，然后我很想回到这里。这是一个伟大的一年。我只是告诉这些人;这可能是最多的有趣的团队我一直在努力。这是我最有趣的岁月之一。因为我们真的为此工作了。我们真的赢得了这一点。这是一个严格的团队，这是一群伟大的人。“

汉德在continued his praise nearly two months later在他的退出访谈中:

"It's been a great year. They have here, from top to bottom, a great staff, great teammates, coaching staff, training staff, everybody behind the scenes ... I can't imagine a better place than (Portland); they do things the right way. It's so hard at this point to know what's going to happen in July, but this is definitely somewhere I'd like to play."

Situations change and players often inflate their positive sentiments to curry favor from fanbases, but it appears the Henderson has legitimate admiration for the Blazers' staff and front office.

Salary Cap Concerns

然而，在豪华税线和添加免费代理时，燃烧器会出现并发症。

Portland has to trim $2.9 million from its payroll to avoid the luxury tax, a point that Blazer’s Edge editorEric Griffith outlined on Wednesday。

For the 2017-18 season, the Blazers swapped out Crabbe’s $19.3-million contract for Nicholson’s $2.8-million cap hit and reduced their payroll from $138.7 million to $122.2 million. This salary reduction lowered their current luxury tax bill from $43.1 million to $4.4 million...

......波特兰也只占奢侈税率的290万美元。一个简单的移动交易德戴维斯for a draft pick, for example—could take them below the tax and delay any future repeater tax penalties by a year.

The Blazers can avoid inflating their payroll by getting Henderson to agree on a veteran minimum salary. As an eight-year veteran, Henderson would receive a salary of $2.1 million, but the league would cover $857,000 of that salary as part of theirprogram to incentivize teams to sign experienced players。

Bottom Line

Portland has yet to make a move for a veteran player this offseason, and reuniting with Henderson could work on multiple levels. The Blazers would gain a consistent presence, andDamian Lillardwould see the return of a respected teammate. Competition for a playoff spot in the Western Conference will be stiff, so it’s essential the Blazers fill the hole left by Crabbe with a player who can reliably contribute immediately. Henderson fits that profile.