The Portland Trail Blazers were involved in a trade Wednesday afternoon in which they acquired Anderson Varejao and a future first-round pick while only giving up a second rounder. The Blazers did not have an open roster spot in order to be able to bring Varejao aboard, so they will be cutting point guard Tim Frazier to make room for him, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports.
The Blazers were involved in this trade because they have a ton of cap room and are one of very few teams that could take on Varejao's contract. The Blazers are also expected to waive Varejao after the trade goes through, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, but they need to make room first to acquire him.
Frazier is a young player that the Blazers and Damian Lillard really like, but he was buried on the point guard depth chart, so they decided he was the logical player to move on from. The 25-year-old was the D-League MVP last season and beat out Phil Pressey this preseason for the third point guard spot. Frazier only appeared in 35 games this year and averaged 1.5 points and 1.2 assists per game.
It would have made sense for Frazier to see some playing time this season, as Lillard was the only other true point guard on the roster, but head coach Terry Stotts decided to go in a different direction. Starting shooting guard C.J. McCollum has been serving as the backup point guard, so the Blazers are comfortable without another true point guard on the team.
In the deal that they acquired Varejao in, the Blazers also picked up the Cavaliers' 2018 first-round pick. That pick alone gives them a pretty good haul considering they didn't really give up anything besides some of their cap room.
For Frazier, he will now become a free agent and look for his next opportunity. The former Penn State star has already conquered the D-League, so it is unclear if he would want to go back there. Other options for Frazier include overseas or holding out hope that somebody gives him a 10-day contract.
