The Portland Trail Blazers are staring at a backcourt problem that isn’t going away on its own, and the latest move - or lack of one - only sharpened the issue. After the Ja Morant blockbuster, Portland chose not to make a follow-up deal, leaving Joe Cronin with a roster that still feels crowded in all the wrong places as the team heads toward the 2026-27 season.
That logjam matters because the Blazers are no longer in a simple rebuild. Their young core is good enough that bottoming out isn’t really on the table anymore, and they’ve already reached the postseason for the first time in this rebuild.
At the same time, they’re not close enough to true contention to stand pat. Portland still has to improve, and that means eventually deciding which young pieces are worth keeping in the long run.
Among the names in play, Scoot Henderson should be the one Portland protects.
Henderson is already eligible for a rookie-scale extension before the season starts, and while that doesn’t force the Blazers to hand him a new deal, his progress has been enough to keep him in the picture. He may not be the lead guard role Portland imagined when it took him No. 3 overall in 2023, but he has shown enough to matter. Coming off the bench as an evolving 3-and-D guard, he still has a real path to fitting into whatever this roster becomes.
He’s also only 22, and the source material points to his work ethic as one of the best on the team. That counts for something when a roster is trying to sort out who can grow with it and who might need to be moved to clear the way.
Shaedon Sharpe, by contrast, is the more complicated case.
Portland already committed to him with a four-year, $90 million extension last offseason, and on paper he looks like the cleaner fit because of his size and athleticism. He can slide up to small forward, which gives him more positional flexibility than Henderson. But the extension was still a bet on what Sharpe might become, not just what he had already proven.
And that’s where the concern comes in. The source frames Sharpe as a player whose box score can outshine his real effect on winning because of questions about his defense and his score-first style.
That view has apparently shown up in coaching decisions, too. Chauncey Billups benched him midseason, and Tiago Splitter left him out of the playoff rotation against the San Antonio Spurs.
That playoff series gave Portland its first real look at this young group under the kind of pressure where flaws don’t stay hidden for long. Henderson had his own issues there, especially with inconsistent shooting and scoring as the series went on. But once the Blazers added more moving parts to the backcourt picture, both Henderson and Sharpe became harder to project as consistent, central pieces.
Injuries only add another wrinkle. Sharpe is expected to miss about six months after suffering a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee, a setback that could make him even more likely to be the odd man out.
The bigger question is how Portland sorts out the rest of the guard room. If the Blazers can figure out a workable mix with Ja Morant, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, and Scoot Henderson, the last thing they need is another ball-dominant player with defensive concerns and limited spacing.
That’s why both Henderson and Sharpe should be available in conversations. Neither should be treated as untouchable.
Still, if the offers are close, Henderson is the one Portland should keep. He looks easier to scale into whatever the final version of this team becomes, and the source’s case is simple: when the choice is tight, the Blazers should side with the player whose work ethic gives them more confidence in the long run.
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Micah Nori now has to decide how the Blazers want to look when the games matter, whether that means starting Morant or Lillard, staggering their minutes or leaning on a different mix altogether. Jrue Holiday gives Portland another way to smooth things out with his size, defense and shooting, and the question is no longer whether the Blazers have options. It is which one best matches the version of the team they have spent the rebuild trying to become. [Read more 🡒]
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Blazers Camp Opens With Two Roster Tensions Fans Can't Ignore
Training camp is approaching with a new look on the sideline, as the Trail Blazers get set to work under lead assistant coach Mikkelnori. Portlands offseason has left it with real offensive talent to sort through, and the early focus is less on adding firepower than on figuring out how the pieces fit once the games and practices start to matter.
Ja Morant, Damian Lillard and Deni Avdija give the Blazers three players who can all demand touches, which makes the rotation conversation just as important as the lineup card. There is also a roster squeeze at the back end, where Jalen Krejci, Jeremy Sochan and Micah Potter are competing for what could be the final spot, with contract details helping shape a decision that may not settle quickly. [Read more 🡒]