The Portland Trail Blazers are heading into the 2026-27 season with an immediate problem, and it starts with Shaedon Sharpe.
Sharpe tore a meniscus in an offseason workout, and the recovery timeline is expected to keep the 23-year-old out for at least the next six months, likely through the All-Star Break in February. For Portland, that means losing a scorer who has reached the 20-point mark and kept taking steps forward every season.
There is at least one upside to the situation: the Blazers suddenly have real backcourt depth. Damian Lillard is back after his gap year, Ja Morant arrived in a surprising trade from the Memphis Grizzlies, and Scoot Henderson gets another chance to expand his role.
Even so, Portland is still left with a very specific kind of hole. Sharpe gave the Blazers size and shot creation off the bench, and that was part of what made Jerami Grant such a useful piece in the second unit last season. Grant accepted that sixth-man role and provided the scoring the bench needed, especially for a group that is otherwise built around defense.
That same issue could show up again this year, depending on what Micah Nori decides to do with the starting five. But with Henderson and Sidy Cissoko in the second unit, the offense can bog down quickly. Grant’s ability to rise up at 6-foot-7 and shoot over defenders gave Portland a release valve, just as Sharpe’s elite athleticism let him get past, or sometimes over, people.
It was the kind of option the Blazers could turn to when Henderson, Cissoko, and others couldn’t create enough separation. That is why Portland was right to move Grant to the bench in the first place, using him as the veteran scorer to balance out a young core.
Whatever anyone thinks about his contract, the Blazers are going to miss that part of Grant’s game. Sharpe was the only player in that second unit who could provide that same kind of bailout shot creation.
There isn’t a clean fix for Nori now that both Grant and Sharpe are out of the picture in the rotation. More than likely, Portland will have to give up size and lean harder on the Henderson, Lillard, Morant, Jrue Holiday backcourt for extra minutes.
That’s the shape of this roster now: guard-heavy, ball-dominant, and built to create offense by committee. The Blazers are going to need that added handling and playmaking to make up for the scoring they’ve lost in the second unit.
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Around the league, though, the comparison point keeps getting harder to ignore. Amen Thompson, taken one spot after Henderson by Houston, has already put himself on a premium track, and every new benchmark for his value invites another look back at Portlands choice. The Blazers did not draft for the alternative timeline, but the roster questions that followed that night are still hanging around, and they add another layer to whatever comes next for Henderson. [Read more 🡒]
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Blazers Could Pounce If Clippers Chaos Changes One Big Plan
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Even with the damage, the Clippers still have a few future assets left, including unprotected first-round picks from the Raptors in 2031 and 2033. For a Portland team always looking for the next way to add talent or leverage, the bigger question is whether this mess changes the Clippers long-term plan enough to make one of their more interesting pieces available. [Read more 🡒]