The Portland Trail Blazers may have an unusually crowded problem on their hands this offseason, and it starts in the backcourt.
With Ja Morant, Damian Lillard, Scoot Henderson and Jrue Holiday all on the roster, first-year head coach Micah Nori has to sort out a point guard rotation that features more starting-caliber talent than most teams can even dream of. The expectation, at least for now, is that two of them will be on the floor at all times. How that minutes puzzle gets solved is still the big question.
Morant arrives in Portland after seven seasons as the Memphis Grizzlies’ starting point guard, where he became the face of the franchise from the moment he entered FedEx Forum. In Portland, though, that kind of clear-cut hierarchy is gone. He may not be locked in as the No. 1 option, but that doesn’t make his role any less important.
What should stay central to Morant’s game is the pressure he puts on the rim. He averaged just under 16 drives per game this past season, though that came in a small sample of 20 games.
Over the course of his career, he’s been one of the league’s most dangerous drivers, and that’s still the engine that should drive his offense in Portland. If he’s getting to the basket, drawing fouls and creating offense, it’s hard to imagine him spending much time on the bench.
The health side of the equation matters too. Morant has averaged 31.7 minutes per game for his career, but that number dropped to a career-low 28.5 last season. He’s appeared in only 79 games over the last three seasons, so Portland may want to be careful with his workload if it wants him available deep into the regular season and into the playoffs.
Lillard brings a different set of concerns and a different kind of value. He missed the last year with a torn Achilles, so his minutes will also need to be managed. For most of his career, he’s lived at just over 36 minutes per game, even into his mid-30s, but that’s not a realistic target now with so many guards in the mix.
Even so, the Blazers are going to lean on Lillard in a major way. He still has to be the team’s leader on and off the court, and his three-point shooting is a huge part of why.
Portland missed that kind of perimeter threat last season, and Lillard’s career 37.1 percent mark from deep means he should be a constant factor whenever he’s available. The challenge is balancing his workload without shortchanging the team or his recovery.
Henderson fits into this picture differently. He has started only 52 games in his three-year career, so a bench role won’t be new territory.
He’s still averaged 27 minutes across those three seasons, with heavier usage coming earlier in his career when Portland wasn’t chasing the playoffs. That may change now.
He doesn’t have Morant’s downhill burst or Lillard’s shooting touch, but Henderson is still a capable option, and Portland should feel good about turning to him when either of the veterans is off the floor.
Then there’s Holiday, who may have the toughest adjustment of the group. In 1,090 career games, he has started 1,007 of them, and last season he made 51 starts in 53 appearances for Portland. Even so, his minutes dipped to 29.4 per game, the lowest since the 2015-16 season, when he was coming off a leg injury with the New Orleans Pelicans.
At age 36, Holiday should be comfortable with a reduced role, but his defense still gives him a clear lane to playing time. Offensively, he’s also still producing, coming off a 16.3-point season that was his best scoring average since 2022-23 with the Milwaukee Bucks, when he was an All-Star.
That number figures to come down with Lillard, Morant and Henderson back in the fold. But even with a smaller offensive load, Holiday remains an important piece for the Blazers, who will still count on him heavily.
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Blazers Face One Huge Question With Ja Morant And Dame
The Trail Blazers have spent the offseason assembling a backcourt that would be the envy of almost any team, but it also comes with a lineup puzzle that is impossible to ignore. With Ja Morant now alongside Damian Lillard, Scoot Henderson, Jrue Holiday and Shaedon Sharpe, Portland suddenly has more guard talent than obvious minutes, and the first task is figuring out how to make the pieces fit without sacrificing the balance that keeps a team functional.
How Morant and Lillard share the floor is the question that hangs over the group, especially with defensive impact already a concern and the guard rotation likely to require some hard choices. Micah Nori is working through those adjustments as the Blazers get ready for the season, and the real test may not be whether the talent is there, but whether Portland can turn all of it into something coherent when the games start counting. [Read more 🡒]
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