Portland Trail Blazers knew the risks with Brandon Roy all along – NBA Update
An interesting detail of Brandon Roy’s contract signing has surfaced during a recent radio show. The Portland Trail Blazers GM at the time Kevin Pritchard, who has since left the organization, revealed that the Trail Blazers were
aware of Brandon Roy’s knee issues before they signed him to a bumper contract extension.
Kevin Pritchard was fired by the Portland Trail Blazers afterwards but the two issues are not believed to be related. Pritchard revealed that Brandon Roy had knee injury problems before but the franchise and the star believed that
the worst was behind him. Therefore they decided to give Brandon Roy a max contract to ensure they had a star player tied down to the franchise.
However the star player crashed in a heap afterwards and has missed a huge chunk of the last two seasons. Since the signing of the contract Roy’s injuries have reduced him to a bit part player and many have questioned his ability
to play at a high level anymore. So bad is the situation, Roy has had repeated injuries and surgery on his knees, that there is no guarantee that the player will be able to continue playing at all if he suffers another setback.
In hindsight, the decision to sign Brandon Roy to a large contract seems a pretty poor one. However Pritchard said that back then it made sense and also revealed that the Portland Trail Blazers have not had as bad a deal as most
people believe.
Pritchard said that the decision to grant Roy a max contract in 2009 was based on his previous season as well as the implications of him becoming a free agent after the next one. Brandon Roy had his best career season in 2008-2009
and was hailed by all as a genuine star, someone behind whom the Trail Blazers could achieve great success. Also, with Roy becoming a free agent in 2010, Portland would have had to offer him an even longer contract then which would have been even more costly.
So, signing Brandon to a contract extension in 2009 made sense economically.
The Trail Blazers also had an eye on Roy’s wobbly knee and put safeguards in place to avoid the worst, which as we know now did happen. Pritchard said that the franchise took out a complete insurance for Brandon Roy from the part
of his contract that was not guaranteed. In essence that means that the contract paid for itself once Roy was injured.
As such the Trail Blazers did not take too much of a hit financially due to the contract, although it did take up space in the salary cap, restricting the ability of the franchise to sign players on lucrative contracts.
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