Rodney Hood Reportedly Declines $6M Blazer Contract Option, Will Become UFA

Rodney Hood will become an unrestricted free agent after declining his $6 million player option with the Portland Trail Blazers for 2020-21 on Tuesday, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. 

Hood suffered a torn Achilles in December, which ended his 2019-20 season after just 21 games. Though he was anxious for a return, there was no timeline for his recovery.

"I'm going to play next year," he said in February, per Casey Holdahl of the team's official site. "I've been healing fast so hopefully I'm ready by training camp. But things happen and things slow up and speed up, you just never know."

The delayed start to the season could prove even more beneficial for the 28-year-old.

Hood was off to a strong start to the season before the injury, averaging 11.0 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. His 49.3 three-point percentage and 60.8 effective field goal percentage were easily the best of his career, though it was a small sample size.

Since entering the league in 2014, Hood has proved he can be a reliable role player with an average of 12.5 points per game while usually handling starter's minutes. He was at his best at the start of 2017-18 when he averaged 16.8 points per game in 39 appearances for the Utah Jazz before a midseason trade.

He bounced around the league to the Cleveland Cavaliers and eventually the Trail Blazers, helping each team make deep playoff runs in the past few years.

The injury could hurt his value in free agency, but Hood has proved his worth in the past and will try to turn that into a new deal.

This represents another hole Portland must fill this offseason with Hassan Whiteside and Carmelo Anthony also hitting free agency, leaving the team with few reliable scorers outside of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic.

Portland is, however, nearing a deal for forward Robert Covington, according to Wojnarowski.