Wisconsin Herd: Jaylen Adams to sign with Portland Trail Blazers as substitute
After a star turn with the Milwaukee Bucks G League affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, Jaylen Adams is reportedly signing with the Portland Trail Blazers ahead of next month’s season restart.
Jaylen Adams ended last week being named the runner-up for G League MVP for the 2019-20 season behind his Wisconsin Herd teammate in Frank Mason III. Now he begins this week by getting a call back up to the NBA.
First reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski Monday night, Adams plans on signing with the Portland Trail Blazers ahead of next month’s season restart in Orlando.
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Per Woj, Adams will be a substitute for Blazers veteran forward Trevor Ariza, who has opted out playing in the 2019-20 season restart for personal reasons.
While Adams doesn’t overlap with Ariza’s position nor does he offer the Blazers immediate help on the wing or in the starting lineup, Portland does add a dynamic scoring guard in Adams that just finished one incredibly strong campaign.
After all, Adams was a standout star for the Bucks G League affiliate as he finished the season averaging 21.5 points on a .486/.407/.788 slash line, along with 5.7 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.8 steals across his 33 appearances with the Herd.
Jaylen Adams has been rewarded for his MVP runner-up campaign with the Wisconsin Herd by getting the chance to make his mark in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Along with being named the runner-up for this year’s G League MVP award, Adams, along with Mason, landed on the All-NBA G League first team, which was announced at the end of last week. Now Adams stands as the third call-up the Herd have had this season, following Rayjon Tucker to the Utah Jazz and most recently, Justin Patton to the Detroit Pistons.
Of course, Portland’s backcourt is headlined by the likes of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, and the Blazers have a nice, promising lead ball handler in Anfernee Simons coming off the bench to step in for either Lillard or McCollum when needed too. For those reasons, it may be tough for Adams to get some consistent looks within the Blazers’ rotation under head coach Terry Stotts while in Orlando.
On the other hand, the Blazers add another skilled ball handler in Adams who gives the same instant off-the-dribble scoring that Lillard and McCollum specialize in supplying within the Blazers’ system.
This will serve as Adams’ second NBA stint after he was a two-way player with the Hawks for his rookie season. While in Atlanta, Adams averaged 3.2 points on .345/.338/.778 shooting splits, 1.9 assists and 1.8 rebounds over his 34 appearances for the 2018-19 season.
The St. Bonaventure product will surely hope for his shooting to resemble what he did accomplish in his second pro season with the Herd to what he did with the Hawks last season.
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But for right now, Adams has his second chance of showing he’s an NBA player. With his foot in the door, let’s hope he gets that chance to show off his game, especially after what he achieved as a leading piece for the Herd this season.