Leroux Explains Whiteside, 2020 Free Agents to Face ‘Rude Awakening’

When the NBA’s current hiatus eventually ends the 2020 free agent class will head to the negotiation table shortly after. The reality those players face when they navigate their next contract could be less-than-ideal according to The Athletic’s Danny Leroux.

Earlier in the week, Leroux detailed the upcoming big man market. Trail Blazers center Hassan Whiteside’s free agent outlook was covered in the mid-level exception segment.

The volume of accomplished players looking at seven-figure contracts just at the big man position serves as a rude awakening of the reality for 2020 free agents. Hassan Whiteside (31) has averaged a double-double as a starting center each of the last six seasons, but it is hard to imagine a cap-space team biting and the Trail Blazers have Jusuf Nurkic coming back so they probably will not be aggressively bidding.

Whiteside, who has started in 61 games during his first year in Portland, averaged 16.3 points and 14.2 rebounds per contest. The 30-year-old big man is in the final year of a four-year, $98 million deal that he signed with the Heat in the summer of 2015.

You can read the full story from Leroux at The Athletic.