The Portland Trail Blazers pulled off the trade many people were waiting to see happen for a while when they acquired Brendan Haywood and Mike Miller from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Neither Haywood nor Miller are going to be in training camp with the Blazers this year as they are both expected to get cut. A couple of players who are expected to be there and have a very fierce competition are Phil Pressey and Tim Frazier, according to Jabari Young of CSNNW.com.
Young labels the upcoming competition between Pressey and Frazier the best competition that will take place in Blazers training camp. The winner of this competition between the two guards will be the third point guard behind Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.
Pressey was just signed by the Blazers last week after being cut by the Boston Celtics. The Celtics were big Phil Pressey fans but were unable to hold onto him because they already have a lot of small guards. Celtics President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge said the move to cut Pressey was a very difficult one.
"Phil may be my favorite player I've ever been around in the NBA, as a player, a coach, or as an executive, He's a player I'd want on my team all the time. Unfortunately, we just have an abundance of small guards already. It's unfortunate. He's helped us a lot in the last two years, and he's a classy and hardworking player," Ainge said.
In two seasons with the Celtics, Pressey played in 125 games, averaging 3.1 points and 2.9 assists in 13.9 minutes per game. Pressey only shot 33 percent, but it was more about effort with him and how he goes about playing the game. Pressey was cut before his contract became guaranteed, which would have paid him more than $900,000.
Frazier may have one advantage when it comes to this competition, and that is the fact that he has been in Portland longer than Pressey and has had more of a chance to learn the Blazers system. Frazier played in 11 NBA games last season but spent most of his time in the D-League, where he won D-League MVP for the 2014-15 season when he averaged 16.1 points 9.5 assists and 7.1 rebounds per game.
Frazier is a graduate of Penn State University and has clearly proven he can dominate the D-League, so the next step for him is to make an NBA roster. Neither of these point guards are particularly good shooters but they are both good facilitators and have both had success in their respective career paths. As of right now it is hard to handicap who has the leg up on the third point guard position, but both guys have non-guaranteed deals and can be cut at any time, so once somebody starts to run away with the job the other might be looking for work elsewhere.
