Portland Trail Blazers Sign Wesley Matthews to an Offer Sheet

The Portland Trail Blazers signed Utah guard Wesley Matthews to a offer sheet.

Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, the Oregonian and Jason Quick have placed the offer at somewhere around 5 years, $34 million.

Matthews, who has played for the Utah Jazz since he was signed after going undrafted out of Marquette, is the second Jazz player the Blazers have gone after.

Last summer it was Utah big man Paul Millsap, whom the Blazers went after with a “Toxic offer” that many believed to be more than just an offer for Paul’s talent, but more of an attempt to strangle a division rival’s financial freedom.

But this offer seems to be geared towards gaining an outside threat with defensive talent and tremendous upside.

Matthews, a second-year shooting guard, was relied on heavily during his rookie campaign, starting 48 games out of the 82 he played and averaged 9.4 points, 1.5 assists, and 2.3 rebounds.

He also has valuable playoff experience. Last year, Matthews started all 10 games and was given a much longer chain by coach Jerry Sloan, averaging 37.1 minutes a game compared to his regular season playing average of 24.7 minutes.

Although the Blazers signed Matthews to an offer sheet, the Jazz will be given a week to match the offer.

The Blazers, in signing Matthews to an official deal, would all but mean the end of Rudy Fernandez in Portland and just in the action of offering Matthews a contract, could signal an eventual trade involving Rudy.

As much as the Blazers would like to add Matthews to their squad, the ball is in Utah’s court.

So we will have to wait and see what the Jazz management decide to do.