The Portland Trail Blazers are 3-0 in the preseason, but Tuesday night in Sacramento also flashed a roster issue that could matter once the games count.
Portland beat the Kings 110-98 on the road, following Monday’s 119-66 rout of the London Lions. The wins have come against light opposition, and Tuesday’s game fit that mold again with Sacramento missing several key players. Even the finish had a weird, preseason-only feel to it as Micah Nori experimented with a lineup that put Yang Hansen, Micah Potter, Jeremy Sochan, and Branden Carlson on the floor together, with Jayson Kent as the lone guard.
That closing stretch was messy, but it also revealed something about Portland’s frontcourt. The Blazers have built more skill and depth there than they had last season, and Hansen looked close enough to the rest of that group that it naturally raises the next question: do they really need all of these bigs if it means crowding Hansen’s path to minutes and development?
That’s the real logjam. Not the backcourt.
A lot of the attention around Portland has centered on the crowded guard group after the Ja Morant trade, but the preseason has shown a different lesson: skill is what ends up sorting out roles. The Blazers see a backcourt with Damian Lillard, Morant, Scoot Henderson, and Jrue Holiday as a strength, not a problem.
The bigger concern is on the wing. Portland simply does not have enough depth behind Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara, and Shaedon Sharpe’s injury only makes that thinner.
The team plans to use Holiday more at forward than it did last season, but that still leaves Sidy Cissoko and Vit Krejci in line for meaningful minutes. Cissoko is improving, but if he can’t space the floor, he could be an offensive problem.
Krejci, meanwhile, has not shot the ball the same way since arriving from Atlanta.
That’s why the Branden Carlson signing sticks out. The Blazers used a first-round pick on Hansen, then brought in multiple bigs anyway, creating a frontcourt crunch that can get in the way of that investment. The roster imbalance feels even sharper when the team is short on two-way wings.
The move they probably won’t make, but should, would be to move on from Carlson and look for another wing.
Portland only has three non- or partially guaranteed players in Krejci, Potter, and Sochan, and all three can help at the three and four. They’ve all made a case for the 15-man roster. Carlson’s issue is simpler: there’s not much confidence in his ability to play power forward in a double-big setup without cutting into Hansen’s minutes at center.
He does have some value. Carlson is a 34.9 percent three-point shooter, and there’s something to be said for a player the Thunder organization saw enough in to keep around. But over the past two seasons in the OKC Thunder organization, he’s played power forward an estimated two percent of the time, with the other 98 percent coming at center.
That matters for Portland, because if Carlson is just another center, then the Blazers are carrying excess at a spot where they already have Hansen and, given Robert Williams III’s extensive injury history, still need a dependable third option. Carlson is good enough to belong in the league. He just may not be the right fit for this roster’s actual needs.
In a perfect world for Portland, the front office would have chased a better balance and added a two-way wing to back up Avdija and Camara instead.
In Other News...
Scoot Henderson Is Making Portland's Extension Decision Much Tougher
Joe Cronin has a rookie extension decision hanging over his head with the regular season closing in, and Scoot Henderson has done his part to make the choice less straightforward. ESPNs Bobby Marks floated a three-year, $51.8 million deal as a possible framework, a number that reflects how much the young point guards recent play has shifted the conversation in Portland. After a rocky start to his NBA career, Henderson has helped himself with strong showings in playoff and preseason action, giving the front office a fresher look at what he can be when the game slows down.
The Blazers still have reasons to pause. Henderson has dealt with the kind of inconsistency that makes long-term planning tricky, and Portlands backcourt is crowded enough to keep every rotation discussion open. Even so, his improved shooting, his activity on defense and the reputation he has built for his work ethic all point in the same direction: the organization has a real basketball case for betting on him now, even if the final call is far from simple. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Preseason Win Put Two Young Names In Focus
The Trail Blazers opened the preseason at 2-0, and one of the clearest takeaways from their latest win was how much cleaner the offense looked from the perimeter. Portland shot 47.1 percent from three-point range against the London Lions, with Scoot Henderson drawing attention for his improved touch by going 4 of 5 from deep, a promising sign for a guard the Blazers hope will keep expanding his game.
Yang Hansen also got a meaningful look, and he made it count. The big man played significant minutes, moved the ball well and finished efficiently enough to earn positive remarks from head coach Micah Nori, adding another encouraging note to a preseason that has started by putting a pair of young names firmly in focus. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Rotation Taking Shape As Two Key Fits Come Into Focus
The Trail Blazers head into a two-game preseason road trip against the Kings with a little early momentum and a clearer sense of what their rotation can look like. Portland is off to a 2-0 start in the preseason, and the focus now is less on the scoreboard than on continuing to sort out how the pieces fit as the regular season opener against the Suns gets closer.
Micah Nori has spent the early stretch evaluating how key players are settling into their roles, with Ja Morant and Deni Avdija among the names drawing the most attention. The Blazers like where the group is trending, and the coming road tests should offer another look at how close the team is to having its core patterns in place before the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]