Last week, NBA insider Jake Fischer reported on The Stein Line that the Portland Trail Blazers were planning to add players on non-guaranteed deals to push Micah Potter for the last roster spots.
Then Portland signed recent NBA champion Jeremy Sochan to a one-year deal that, as expected, is non-guaranteed.
On paper, the Blazers now have a full 15-man roster if they choose to open the season with Potter and Sochan as the final pieces. Their two-way spots are also occupied after the team added former Boston Celtics guard John Tonje.
But Fischer’s reporting pointed to more than one addition. The Sochan move may simply be the first step in a broader competition for those back-end jobs.
The exact names still aren’t known, but Portland’s roster construction gives a pretty clear clue about where the focus should go next. The team is crowded at point guard and center, so the more logical targets would be wings and forwards who can challenge Potter and Sochan, or provide depth behind Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara.
Potter and Sochan overlap positionally, but they offer different strengths. That gives new head coach Micah Nori some useful flexibility, with Potter’s shooting on one side and Sochan’s defense on the other. Both are skills Portland could use more of after an offseason that left the roster in an odd place.
If the Blazers ultimately keep only one, the better fit appears to be the shooter. Potter has hit 38.9 percent of his career threes, which matters more for a roster that already has limited offensive pop from Sochan.
Even so, the Sochan signing fits the approach new owner Tom Dundon seems to prefer: taking a low-cost swing on a player with room to bounce back. That was also the idea behind the Ja Morant blockbuster. Sochan, a former top-ten pick from Baylor, is only 23 and still has time to climb back toward that ceiling.
Portland should also be looking at wings who could eventually help replace Matisse Thybulle. The small forward group is thin, with the Blazers leaning on an undersized Jrue Holiday, a still-developing Sidy Cissoko and an inconsistent Vit Krejci.
The free-agent market isn’t exactly rich this deep into August, but the message for Blazers fans is simple: don’t assume the roster is finished just because there are 15 names on it.
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Blazers Just Added Another Young Talent To A Roster Battle
The Trail Blazers have added another young piece to the mix, signing Jeremy Sochan as they continue sorting through the edges of their roster. Portland sees him as a player with room to grow, and the move gives the team another developmental name to evaluate as training camp and competition for spots begin to take shape.
Sochan arrives after stops with the Spurs and the Knicks, bringing the kind of recent experience that can make a roster fight more interesting than usual. For Portland, the appeal is straightforward: keep collecting young talent, see who separates, and let the battle for a place on the team sort itself out over time. [Read more 🡒]
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The standoff has also sharpened the tension around how much of the renovation burden should fall on the public side and how much protection the team should have in the agreement. City officials have downplayed litigation worries, but the Blazers have not been willing to move past a clause tied to maintaining the building in first-class condition, leaving this latest round of talks feeling less like a breakthrough than another reminder of how fragile the teams long-term footing in Portland remains. [Read more 🡒]
Bill Simmons Just Voiced Every Blazers Fans Biggest Fear
Bill Simmons managed to put words to the unease that can follow any ownership change in Portland, especially when the new buyer comes in at a price that feels lower than what an expansion franchise might command. His concern was less about the transaction itself and more about what it could mean down the road, with questions swirling around how much Tom Dundon is really tied to the Portland community and whether the long-term plan is as simple as keeping the Trail Blazers where they are.
Simmons also pointed to Dundons existing role with the Carolina Hurricanes and wondered aloud why someone would want to own a team on the opposite coast unless there were bigger ideas in play. The contrast he drew with Seattle only sharpened the anxiety, because expansion chatter always leaves one eye on the map. For Blazers fans, the fear is not just about who signed the check, but what kind of future that check might be buying. [Read more 🡒]