Portland Trail Blazers Should Pursue Jermaine O’Neal
By Brian Brennan
@b2brennan
Rocky Widner – Getty Images
Rumor has it is Jermaine O’Neal, the 36-year old NBA free agent, is inching closer to a comeback. If he were to make a comeback, he would be a perfect fit for the Portland Trail Blazers.
O’Neal was a first-round draft pick by the Blazers back in the 1996 NBA draft. Coming out of high school, O’Neal became the youngest player to play in an NBA game. He spent four seasons with the Blazers, but was unfortunately behind a long list of veteran frontcourt players and rarely saw consistent minutes.
In 2000, O’Neal was traded to the Indiana Pacers, where he flourished for six out of eight seasons with the team. In those six seasons, he was an All-Star and showed up on the NBA third-team twice and second-team once. Since then, his minutes have diminished along with his age, and O’Neal has become more of a role player for contending teams, a spot the Blazers would love add to their roster.
The Blazers have four listed centers, tied for most on a team in the league. That doesn’t seem ideal for O’Neal, but fans know he won’t get more than 5-10 minutes, a game which can easily be fit into a rotation. Currently, two of Portland’s centers are injured and one is a young player who could use development. I would love to see O’Neal back in a Blazers jersey coaching young players, plus providing rebounding and defense for a team that could use it.
Out of three teams I would guess O’Neal is most likely to go to, I can’t see why he wouldn’t consider a push from Portland. The other two teams are the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors. All three are contenders; he has played for the Warriors before and he lives in Dallas right now.
Wherever O’Neal lands, I hope he succeeds, but if he can come back to the team that drafted him, I think the organization and fans would love to see it.
Brian Brennan is a Portland Trail Blazers writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @b2brennan.
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