Portland’s backcourt picture is already crowded before the first regular-season tip, and that’s the biggest thing to watch as Micah Nori settles into his first year with the Trail Blazers.
Damian Lillard, Ja Morant, Scoot Henderson and Jrue Holiday all give Portland plenty of high-end options, but only two of them can open most games in the starting five. If you’re making the early guess, Lillard and Morant look like the most likely pairing to start, though Nori still has room to shuffle that arrangement if it doesn’t produce the results he wants.
That setup also creates a wrinkle that should keep things fluid once the games start. The opening lineup doesn’t have to be the same group finishing games, and in Portland’s case it may be more about who’s rolling at the moment than any fixed order. In other words, the closing group could be dictated by feel more than by title.
The wing spot behind the starters is another area worth monitoring. For now, Dalibor Krejci appears to be the leading candidate to back up at small forward, although Sidy Cissoko has a case there as well.
Krejci’s contract situation keeps the door open to some uncertainty: he has a partial guarantee going into the season, and if he stays on the roster, that guarantee becomes fully locked in at the start of the year. That would suggest a defined role if Portland keeps him around.
Krejci arrived from the Atlanta Hawks in a trade just before the February deadline, and the Blazers brought him in to help stretch the floor. The shooting didn’t quite come together during his time in Portland last season, but a new year and a new coaching staff could give him a chance to rediscover the form he showed in Atlanta.
There’s also an open-door feel to Jeremy Sochan’s camp situation. He is on an Exhibit 9 deal, which means his place is guaranteed only for training camp, and Portland has 14 players on the active roster with one spot still available. That vacancy could work in his favor if the Blazers want to keep him, and he could also push out Krejci or Micah Potter if the team decides it prefers him.
Sochan brings real pedigree as a former lottery pick, and he even saw minutes during the NBA Finals last season with the New York Knicks. He has the kind of profile that fits on an NBA roster and, in the right spot, can fit into a rotation too. For now, his camp run feels like a live audition, and that makes him one of the more interesting names to track over the next couple of weeks.
In Other News...
Blazers Owner Just Raised The Stakes For Portlands New Era
Tom Dundon used a message to season ticket holders to put a clear target on the Trail Blazers next chapter, framing Portlands recent progress as just the beginning. He pointed to the teams 42-win season, its return to the playoffs and a summer that brought in major names, signaling that the organization expects the current momentum to mean something bigger.
The letter also nodded to the anticipation around Damian Lillards return, giving this new era an added layer of intrigue for fans trying to gauge how quickly the Blazers can move from promising to serious contender. Dundon said the team is working to keep the Moda Center among the NBAs best venues, but he did not lay out any specific arena plans, leaving the bigger picture of what comes next open for now. [Read more 🡒]
New-Look Blazers Finally Give Fans A First Real Look
The preseason opener at Moda Center gives Portland its first live look at a roster that has been reshaped enough to feel familiar and foreign at the same time. Against the Warriors, the Trail Blazers begin a schedule that is less about the result than about learning how the pieces fit, and head coach Micah Nori has already signaled that this month will be used to test lineups while sharpening the basics, especially defensive rebounding and taking care of the ball.
The biggest draw is the new backcourt and the way it changes everything around it, with Ja Morant and Damian Lillard now part of the same Blazers picture for the first time. Portland also has other newcomers working into the rotation, so the early exhibitions should offer at least a glimpse of how the offense and defense might look once Nori settles on combinations and the team gets past the first wave of experimentation. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Fans Already Have A New Ownership Controversy To Process
Tom Dundons first months as the Trail Blazers owner already have had plenty going on, with the franchise trying to settle a new direction around Ja Morant, new head coach Micah Nori and a young core that includes Deni Avdija. So when he sent a letter to season ticket holders meant to reassure them about the teams commitment to Portland, it was always going to draw attention beyond the usual routine ownership message.
The problem is the letter itself has now become part of the conversation, not just its intent. Fans who were supposed to be hearing a steadying note about the future are instead parsing how the message was put together, and for a team trying to project stability after a flurry of major basketball changes, that is not the kind of side story anyone in the building wanted to add to the pile. [Read more 🡒]