The Trail Blazers choose to stay in the Australian inside. Will he fight alongside Yang Hansen again in the new season?

According to HoopsHype reporter Michael Scotto, the Portland Trail Blazers have decided to convert inside player Duop Reath's contract to a guaranteed contract in 2025-26. Reese will earn $2.22 million next season, and his contract in the next season should be non-guaranteed. The Trail Blazers can also choose to cut him off this Friday US time and avoid his contract becoming a security contract. However, it seems that the Trail Blazers are quite acknowledging Reese's ability, so they chose to keep him instead of cutting him off.

Rees was born in June 1996 and is 29 years old, 206cm tall and weighs 111kg. He was the undraft in the 2018 NBA Draft. After finishing his NCAA career, Rees has played in the Adriatic League, NBL, CBA and Lebanon League, and he has also shown good personal abilities in some fields. He is also capable of playing some of his own roles on both sides of the offense and defense. In the summer of 2023, with his outstanding performance in the NBA Summer League, he showed quite good personal abilities, his performance was fully recognized, and he also won a two-way contract for himself. In February 2024, the Trail Blazers became a regular on him and he also received a multi-year contract.

In the NBA regular season last season, Rees played a total of 46 games, averaging 10.2 minutes per game, with averaging 4.2 points, 2 rebounds, 0.6 assists, 0.3 steals, and 0.3 blocks, 0.3 turnovers and 0.9 fouls, with a shooting percentage of 42.2%, a three-point shooting percentage of 32.1%, and a free throw shooting percentage of 90.9%. In the NBA Development League last season, Rees played 2 games in total, with averaging 32.8 minutes per game, with averaging 26 points, 8.5 rebounds, 0.5 steals and 1.5 blocks, and 2.5 turnovers and 4.5 fouls. His shooting percentage was 41.3%, his three-point shooting percentage was 35%, and his free throw shooting percentage was 100%.

Rees' NBA game last season was actually relatively limited, and the Trail Blazers also have a large number of people in the inside position. This summer, the Trail Blazers chose to buy out DeAndre Ayton's contract, but they also selected Hansen Yang in this year's NBA draft. Given that they also have Donovan Clingan in their roster, if Robert Williams stays healthy in the new season, Rees will have little chance of playing. Of course, Rees is also an experienced veteran, and he has worked with Yang Hansen in the CBA field, and he has a very good impression of Yang Hansen. Perhaps this is also an important factor in their choice to keep him?