Blazers To Sign Rondae Hollis-Jefferson

The Portland Trail Blazers will sign Rondae Hollis-Jefferson according to Shams Charania of the Athletic. Portland originally drafted Hollis-Jefferson in 2015 but traded the rights to the Brooklyn Nets for Mason Plumlee and the pick that became Pat Connaughton.

Hollis-Jefferson most recently played for the Timberwolves on a training camp contract, but he was waived on December 19th, 2020. Prior to that, he played a single season for the Toronto Raptors after four years with the Brooklyn Nets. In the 2019-20 season, Hollis-Jefferson averaged 7.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.8 assists, shooting 47.1% from the field.

Over his career, Hollis-Jefferson has averaged 9.3 points, 5.6 rebouds, and 1.9 assists. Our own Steve Dewald speculated as to what Hollis-Jefferson could bring to the Trail Blazers after injuries to Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic left the Blazers’ frontcourt looking thin.

Why stop at Giles? By adding Hollis-Jefferson, the Blazers could continue a trend of signing players that briefly donned red and black as they crossed the stage at the NBA Draft. Beyond that, Hollis-Jefferson is a versatile defender that hustles in the margins. Offensively, he doesn’t bring much to the table outside of his penchant for producing points off cuts to the rim. Hollis-Jefferson would not directly address Portland’s lack of size, but he would add flavor to small-ball and defense-first lineups.

This story is breaking and will be updated.