Despite being nowhere near even playoff contention, let alone championship contention, heading into the 2024-25 NBA season, the Portland Trail Blazers are still paying a pair of veterans some of the priciest contracts in the league, per Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors.
Center Deandre Ayton and power forward Jerami Grant both make the cut. Four of the league’s top five earners next season are MVPs, in Golden State Warriors All-NBA Third Team point guard Stephen Curry (who’ll earn $55,761,216, most in the NBA), All-Star Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid and reigning MVP Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic ($51,415,938, tied for the second-most), and Phoenix Suns All-NBA power forward Kevin Durant ($49,856,021, the fifth-most). The fifth, Suns shooting guard Bradley Beal, is making a fourth-most $50,203,930 in 2024-25. Former Trail Blazers All-NBA point guard Damian Lillard is tied with his new Milwaukee Bucks teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo with $48,787,676, good for the 12th-most in the league.
Ayton is the 43rd best-compensated player in the league next season, earning a solid $34,005,126 — a maximum deal relative to his experience level at the time he inked that contract as a restricted free agent in 2022 while still with the Phoenix Suns. Ayton is owed two years and $69.6 million on the remainder of his deal. He’ll still be just 28 as an unrestricted free agent in 2026. Ayton is sandwiched between No. 42-ranked Memphis Grizzlies shooting guard Desmond Bane, who’s making $34,005,250 and is eligible for an additional $1,141,750 in incentives.
3-and-D Trail Blazers power forward Jerami Grant rounds out the list at No. 50. He’ll net $29,793,104 in 2024-25, and could be under contract with the team through the 2027-28 season, when he’d earn $36,413,790, The 6-foot-7 wing has a player option that year, when he’ll be 33 and still probably good enough to fetch another (probably final) lucrative long-term deal. Grant is behind two recent playoff heroes, New York Knicks-turned-Oklahoma City Thunder starting center Isaiah Hartenstein and reigning NBA/Olympic champion Boston Celtics All-Defensive combo guard Jrue Holiday. Both Holiday and Hartenstein are slated to fetch $30 million next year.
Both players, by the very nature of being incredibly well-compensated and NBA middle-aged on a tanking team, should be intriguing trade targets for rival squads. Ayton in particular seems like a natural trade fit with the New Orleans Pelicans, who are looking to take a leap from their current status as first round postseason also-rans and also desperately need a new starting-caliber center.
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