NBA Rumors: Did the Trial Blazers Know Brandon Roy Was a Risk?

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The Trail Blazers have made plenty of questionable decisions in their history, but their handling of Brandon Roy’s current contract is enough to raise the eyebrows of even the biggest Blazer apologist.

According to Matt Moore of Probasketballtalk.com, the Blazers GM, Kevin Pritchard, knew of Brandon Roy’s knee problems before he signed him to his latest contract.

Now, for all the problems that Roy has had it would be easy to criticize the Blazers for coughing up big money for a man with no knees, but according to Matt Moore there were methods to the madness.

Covering Their Bases

Moore writes:

Pritchard said part of the decision to re-sign Roy was based off of his free-agent eligibility the following year. If Roy had stayed healthy in 09-10, he would have garnered a longer-term contract for the max, so in reality, the Blazers were getting a deal there. Second, Pritchard revealed that the portion of Roy’s contract that isn’t guaranteed was used to purchase a secondary insurance option, which covers Roy in entirety.

Ok, so on the surface it looks like a terrible idea. Beneath the surface is doesn’t look that bad, but let’s examine it again.

The Salary Cap

Here’s an issue that can’t be avoided no matter how much insurance they have. Brandon Roy is making a lot of money for little production and things could get worse for him in the future. Here’s a breakdown of Roy’s salary structured in his last contract.

2009-10	$3.9m
2010-11	$13.5m
2011-12	$14.9m
2012-13	$16.3m
2013-14	$17.7m

As of last season, Roy’s contract has become indefensible. Sure, he was coming off his best season in 2008-09 and played in 78 games, but if you know that your best player has bad knees just waiting to happen. Of course the insurance will keep him from being a financial liability on the balance sheet, but he is now a salary cap nightmare, especially if the owners get a hard cap(and lord knows the NBA needs one).

Let’s not forget that this is coming off the heels of the same season that Greg Oden’s knees kept him out of his rookie season, the 2008-2009 season. It seems highly unusual that they would commit to $82 million when they were already being burned by a player with a knee problems.

No franchise has been burned more by knee problems than the Trail Blazers, but with moves like made with Roy’s contract it’s not hard to see why.

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