The Trail Blazers have exercised their 2020-21 team options on Zach Collins and Anfernee Simons, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).
Collins, Portland’s first-round pick in 2017, will have a $5,406,255 cap hit on his fourth-year option in ’20-21. He’ll be extension-eligible next summer and will otherwise be on track for restricted free agency in the summer of 2021.
The big man, who turns 22 in November, projects to have a major role for the Blazers with Jusuf Nurkic still sidelined to start the season. Collins averaged 6.6 PPG and 4.2 RPG in 77 games off the bench last season, but will likely be part of the starting lineup this fall and figure to play more than the 17.6 minutes per game he averaged in 2018-19.
As for Simons, his third-year option for ’20-21 will have a very modest cap hit of $2,252,040. The 20-year-old, who was selected 24th overall in the 2018 draft, appeared in just 20 games during his rookie season but has been generating buzz this offseason and should play more minutes going forward. Simons figures to get an opportunity to back up Damian Lillard at the point now that Evan Turner is no longer in the picture.
With Collins and Simons now locked in for 2020-21, the Blazers have approximately $91.4M in guaranteed money on their cap. That figure doesn’t include player options for Rodney Hood or Mario Hezonja.
