1:47pm: Eubanks’ second 10-day contract is now official, the Blazers announced in a press release. Eubanks will earn $99,380 over the course of the deal, which will run through March 13.
8:11am: The Trail Blazers are signing big man Drew Eubanks to a second 10-day contract, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Eubanks’ first 10-day deal with the team expired overnight.
Eubanks appeared in three games during his first 10 days with Portland, averaging 9.3 PPG and 7.7 RPG on 70.6% shooting in 22.3 minutes per contest. He stepped right into the starting lineup at center due to Jusuf Nurkic‘s foot injury and the club’s limited depth at the position.
Eubanks began the season in San Antonio and was traded to Toronto at last month’s deadline in the Thaddeus Young/Goran Dragic deal. The Raptors immediately waived him, opening the door for him to join the Blazers.
Portland doesn’t have an opening on its 15-man roster, but qualifies for an injury-related hardship exception, since so many players on the roster are sidelined with long-term injuries. Damian Lillard (abdominal surgery), Didi Louzada (knee), Nurkic (foot), Nassir Little (shoulder), Joe Ingles (knee), and Eric Bledsoe (Achilles) are among the players unavailable for the Blazers.
A player is typically ineligible to sign more than two 10-day contracts with the same team in a given season. That restriction hasn’t applied to COVID-related hardship deals, but we haven’t gotten clarity on whether injury-related hardship deals are also exempt. If they are, the Blazers could continue signing Eubanks to short-term deals once his next 10-day contract expires. If they’re not, the team would have to sign him for the rest of the season or let him walk once his second 10-day is up.
The Blazers don’t play again until Saturday. If they wait until tomorrow to officially re-sign Eubanks, he’d be under contract for Portland’s next five games before becoming a free agent on March 15.
Weird he wasn’t signed to a standard contract.
He’s a very good big to have on your bench. Strong and athletic and has a high motor and a nice jump shot out to about 15 feet. He looked great against the Nuggets last week.
They don’t have an open roster spot so they’d have to have another player to sign him to a standard contract. By signing him to a 10 day they dont have to make a move. Why not use that ability as long as you can.
Waive Didi Louzada or sign Eubanks to a two-way until you can find someone to waive and then sign him to a rest-of-season
they should honestly cut Ingles, seeing as he’s not doing anything for them this year
They might want Ingles bird rights for a sign and trade or they might want to bring him back. So my guess is Eubanks gets a two way.
Indeed.
Portland is tanking rest of the season, so unless they plan on keeping Eubanks, no need to waive someone.
Cody Zeller, Smith Jr, McLemore, Hughes or Elleby also have expiring contracts. But if they wanted to waive any of them, they wouldve done it before 1st of march
Drew Eu is an NBA ready roll player
Not flashy
But like Bill Wennington of yore
He’s tough, he’s saavy on the boards
And he’s wet from his midrange 4 set shot spots
He sticks in the league.
Sixers should have signed him