The Portland Trail Blazers are betting on a familiar modern formula: load up on guards, protect the rim, and trust the pieces to sort themselves out.
That’s the lesson floating around the Western Conference right now, where the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs sit at the top of the heap heading into the season. Both teams are built around waves of ball handlers and playmakers, and both have the kind of young cores that could keep them there for years. For Portland, that makes the climb a whole lot steeper.
The Blazers are not in a position to dodge the gauntlet. They’re stuck in the West, and if they’re going to reach the Finals, they’ll likely have to go through one or both of those rising powers. That’s the reality for a team that finished with a 42-win season, claimed the No. 7 seed, and pushed into the playoffs last year with a young roster already moving in the right direction.
Even with internal growth and the return of Damian Lillard, there were still obvious questions about Portland’s ceiling. There’s no certainty Lillard will get all the way back after his Achilles tear, and even if he does, the Blazers still needed more top-end talent to have a real chance against the Spurs or Thunder in a seven-game series.
That’s the bet behind the Ja Morant trade.
Portland is taking a low-risk swing on a former two-time All-Star, hoping Morant can bring back enough of that high-end guard play to close the gap. The fit is already starting to make sense, even with the obvious questions attached to his return to form. He gives the Blazers a level of talent that Jerami Grant and Kris Murray never brought, and that matters when you’re trying to catch teams operating at the top of the conference.
The guard rotation is crowded, but Portland has a path to making it work. Shaedon Sharpe’s injury opens up 30 minutes per night, giving Micah Nori room to spread the floor time around their healthy guards. Jrue Holiday’s versatility helps too, especially with the Blazers planning to use him more at small forward than they did last season.
That kind of flexible, guard-heavy structure is exactly what the Spurs are leaning into. In their season opener against the Thunder, they plan to start De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper together in the backcourt. That matchup looms as a possible Western Conference Finals preview, and it’s the kind of blueprint Portland is trying to borrow from.
The overlap is pretty clear. These contenders are putting multiple ball handlers on the floor at once, and they’re asking defenses to keep up.
Portland lacked that last season. The offense got sloppy with turnovers and too often bogged down when opponents focused on Deni Avdija. Now the Blazers have more than one player defenses have to account for, and Morant’s arrival has changed the shape of the roster in a hurry.
The defensive support matters just as much. San Antonio can lean on Victor Wembanyama, the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, to cover for the risks that come with all that guard talent. Portland is trying to build something similar with Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams III anchoring the center rotation as rim protectors.
The Blazers still haven’t proved they belong in the same tier as the Thunder or Spurs. But the way they’re putting this roster together at least points in the right direction. Joe Cronin’s decision to prioritize guards and centers over wings and forwards might look odd at first glance, yet it makes more sense when viewed through the lens of how the league’s best young teams are winning right now.
In Other News...
Blazers Just Opened A Roster Question At Forward
The Blazers have opened up another roster spot at forward by requesting waivers on Jeremy Sochan, who arrived on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract. If he clears waivers, Sochan would move on as an unrestricted free agent, leaving Portland to keep sorting through its frontcourt depth as the roster picture continues to settle.
Portland now sits at 17 players under contract, with 14 on standard deals and three on two-way contracts, so the move does more than just trim a camp body. It gives the front office a little more flexibility, but it also leaves the team with one fewer option on the wing and at forward as the Blazers continue shaping the group they want to carry forward. [Read more 🡒]
Ja Morant Is Already Raising One Big Blazers Question
The early returns on Ja Morant have given the Trail Blazers something they have not always had in recent seasons: a clear sense that a major swing might actually move the rebuild forward. Portland gave up Jerami Grant and Kris Murray to get him, and even in the preseason there have been signs that Morant can sharpen both ends of the floor in ways that fit the roster around him. For a team that has spent plenty of time trying to find the right star-level fit, that matters.
What makes this move especially notable is how closely it ties to Joe Cronins bigger track record. The Blazers general manager has already shown a willingness to make bold trades, and those decisions have helped raise the ceiling of the rebuild before. With Morant now in the mix, the bigger question is no longer whether Portland can add talent, but how far this version of the roster can go once the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Make Late Roster Decision After Jeremy Sochan Push
The Blazers have moved on from Jeremy Sochan after a brief preseason stretch that gave Portland a look at the veteran forward before the roster started to tighten. Sochan had been on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal, making him one of the more movable pieces in camp as the team sorted through its late decisions.
Sochan did get into several preseason games for Portland, but the split between opportunity and security was always part of the equation with a non-guaranteed contract. He arrives with real league experience, a championship from his time with the New York Knicks and a career line of 9.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, leaving the Blazers to keep refining the roster picture around the margins. [Read more 🡒]