Report: Blazers trade Noah Vonleh to Bulls

Ben Rohrbach
·Senior NBA writer
Noah Vonleh is a former top-10 pick. (AP)
Noah Vonleh is a former top-10 pick. (AP)

The Portland Trail Blazers traded Noah Vonleh to the Chicago Bulls in a luxury tax-saving move, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The Blazers will reportedly trade the remainder of Vonleh’s expiring $3.5 million contract and cash to Chicago in exchange for the draft rights to 32-year-old former last overall pick Milovan Rakovic. In the process, Portland gets under the luxury tax this season and gets a trade exception of the same value.

Vonleh has averaged 3.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in 14.4 minutes over 33 games for the Blazers this season. The 6-foot-10 power forward was drafted ninth overall by the Charlotte Hornets in 2014. He will be a restricted free agent this summer. Vonleh has not played in 14 of Portland’s last 24 games.

Teams over the luxury tax line have to pay $1.50 for every dollar from $0 to $4,999,999 they spend above $119.266 million. That rate incrementally increases for every $5 million above the tax line up to $20 million. The rates rise exponentially if teams exceed the tax in three of the past four seasons.