Today’s NBA rumors and news features two signing of veteran big men. The Portland Trail Blazers and Sacramento Kings have agreed to partially guaranteed contracts with Moses Brown and Skal Labbissiere.
Trail Blazers To Sign Moses Brown
The Portland Trail Blazers and Brown have agreed to a one-year partially guaranteed contract on Monday evening, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Brown is returning to the Pacific Northwest, where he started his NBA career. After going undrafted out of UCLA in 2019 following his freshman year, the 7-2 center signed an Exhibit-10 contract with the Trail Blazers heading into training. During camp, he impressed the Blazers enough to earn a two-way contract and played nine NBA games for the team.
Brown has bounced around the league since that year. Brown has appeared in 128 career NBA games, including 39 starts, for six teams. Playing for the Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets in 2022-23, the 23-year-old averaged 4.3 points on 63.5% from the field and 4.1 rebounds. He also has played for Oklahoma City, Dallas, and Cleveland.
Brown is relatively athletic for someone his size but is very limited and dependent on others to create for him. Brown has developed a reasonably soft touch around the rim over the last year-and-a-half though 37.8% of his field goal makes have been dunks. He is an exceptional rebounder and decent shot-blocker. However, he is a poor free-throw shooter.
What’s Next For the Blazers?
With Damian Lillard’s situation still in limbo, Portland is starting to push forward a little, with training camp about six weeks away. Brown’s signing gives Portland 13 players on standard contracts. Just 11 players have fully guaranteed deals, as Jabari Walker also holds a partially guaranteed contract ($400,000 of $1.7 million). The Blazers also have two players on two-way contracts, Ibou Badji and John Butler Jr.
If Portland ultimately decides to go forward with Lillard on the roster, the Trail Blazers have six training camp spots open. The Blazers appear set in the backcourt. But they could add a few big men and small forwards/combo forwards.
As it now stands, Brown projects as Jusuf Nurkic’s primary backup though Nurkic has been rumored to be possibly on the move. Badji and Butler are the other centers on the roster. Regardless of what happens with Nurkic, expect Brown to remain with Blazers at least the first few months of the season.
Kings To Sign Skal Labissiere
Not long after the announcement of Brown to Portland occurred, The Athletic’s Shams Charania revealed that the Sacramento Kings agreed to a partially guaranteed contract with Labissiere.
Like Brown and Blazers, Labissiere is back to where his NBA career started. The Phoenix Suns selected Labissiere with the No. 28 overall pick in 2016 and subsequently dealt him to Sacramento as part of a draft day trade. Labissiere spent two-plus years and appeared in 106 games for the Kings before being shipped off to the Portland Trail Blazers at the trade deadline in 2019. He last played in the NBA in 2020.
The 27-year-old holds NBA career averages of 7.2 points and 4.5 rebounds. Labissiere carries a career shooting slash line of .492/.352/.748.
Over the last few years, Labissiere has spent time in the NBA G League, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. He played nine games for the G-League Mexico City Capitanes in 2022-23.
Labissierre is an excellent low-post scorer who can constantly hit jumpers out to 16 feet. He is an excellent offensive rebounder and rim-protector.
Labissierre is the 16th Kings player with a standard contract. He, Neemais Queta, and Nerlens Noel are the only players not to have fully guaranteed deals. Labissiere, Queta, and Noel will likely battle for the final spot or two on the Kings’ 15-man roster during training camp, and it is unknown whether Sacramento will carry a full roster.
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