The Washington Wizards’ motivation in waiving Marcus Smart and Blake Wesley is clear: They saved about $8.2 million with the moves. Smart quickly reached terms to join the Los Angeles Lakers once he cleared waivers.
Now Wesley has found a home, joining a number of other talented young guards with the Portland Trail Blazers, a story broken by Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. This will be a fully guaranteed one-year contract, Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report confirms.
Wesley is the former Notre Dame star who was drafted No. 25 overall in 2022 by the San Antonio Spurs, where things just never clicked as hoped. Wesley’s minutes dropped each season with the Spurs, last year getting in 58 games at 11.8 minutes a night, averaging 3.7 points and two assists a game. Part of the challenge is the 6’5″ guard shot 29.3% from beyond the arc last season (which is pretty much at his career average).
For Portland fans looking for reasons to be optimistic, Wesley is just 22 years old, shot 35.9% from 3-point range for the Austin Spurs in the G League, and he’s a solid to plus defender.
Portland is largely set in their guard rotation with Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson, and Shaedon Sharpe (Damian Lillard is on the roster but will sit out this season recovering from his torn Achilles). Wesley is more of a deep bench guy, but he’ll get his chance, and on a minimum contract, this is a low-risk roll of the dice by Portland. Wesley also makes 15 guaranteed contracts for the Trail Blazers, their roster is set.
