Portland’s shooting problems have been one of the defining headaches of this rebuild, but there’s a path toward real improvement next season. It doesn’t start with a splashy overhaul, either. It starts with Damian Lillard.
Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin made shooting the clear offseason priority for Portland, though the team didn’t exactly attack that need as aggressively as expected. The surprise addition of Ja Morant, another player who isn’t known for his shooting, only sharpened the concern. Even so, the Blazers may still have a workable answer in place, and new head coach Micah Nori looks ready to lean into it.
Lillard’s return gives Portland something it has badly lacked: legitimate floor spacing in the backcourt. That alone should lift the offense and help the Blazers climb out of the bottom five in three-point efficiency, where they’ve lived for much of the rebuild. If Nori goes with a starting five of Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan, Portland could open games with five players who can at least threaten defenses from the perimeter.
That group still has room to grow as shooters. Camara hit 37 percent from deep but needs more consistency.
Clingan is coming off a major second-year leap and looking to build on it. Avdija’s shooting dipped after dealing with a lingering back injury.
But the overall shape of the lineup is much cleaner than what Portland has been rolling out in recent seasons.
The catch, of course, is what that means for Morant. If Lillard is back in the starting group, Morant would likely have to come off the bench. Nori has already signaled he wouldn’t shy away from that call if it becomes necessary.
"Well, I don't know," Nori said on SiriusXM NBA Radio. "I take people at their word. You can say it, and if it has to come to that, I'll say, 'hey, you said you didn't care.'"
Nori also pointed to the kind of buy-in he wants from players like Morant, Lillard and Holiday, stressing that winning has to come first as long as everyone still gets the minutes they expect.
Even if Portland’s first unit looks more balanced, the bench still has shooting questions. Micah Potter was a sneaky useful signing in that area, but Morant and Shaedon Sharpe share some of the same strengths and weaknesses. That means Nori will have to manage the rotation carefully and keep enough shooting on the floor at all times, something Tiago Splitter never really had the flexibility to do.
Last season, the offense too often bogged down when Avdija drove into the lane and had to kick out to non-shooters like Kris Murray and Sidy Cissoko, who even shared the floor together for stretches that were longer than they should have been.
Nori also has a broader plan beyond just the personnel. At his introductory press conference, he talked about how much Lillard’s return will help, but he also laid out the basketball side of the fix: movement, spacing and putting players in the spots where they’re most comfortable.
"We struggled to make shots at the three. Now obviously Dame will help that… when you dig deeper, the three-point shooting, a lot of these guys, they can make threes, but in certain ways.
So maybe some of them are better catch-and-shoot, some are better coming off of ball screens. Maybe some are better going stepback left as opposed to right."
With Lillard back, internal growth from key pieces, offseason additions and Nori’s offensive approach, Portland has a chance to look much better from the outside next season. The Blazers may end up with a more balanced roster than plenty of people expect heading into 2026-27.
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