Portland Trail Blazers head coach Micah Nori steps into his first season with a very specific kind of pressure hanging over him. He’s one of three first-time head coaches in the league this year, alongside the Orlando Magic’s Sean Sweeney and the Dallas Mavericks’ Dusty May, but the setup in Portland is the least forgiving of the group.
Nori doesn’t have the cushion of a long-term deal. The Blazers handed him a rare year-to-year contract and paid him below market, which leaves one obvious question: what does it actually mean for him to “earn” something more?
That part matters because Portland already showed last season that simply winning games may not be enough. Tiago Splitter did that, and more, guiding the team back to the postseason for the first time in five years. It still didn’t result in an extension.
Only new owner and governor Tom Dundon really knows what box Nori has to check, and the answer may not be purely about basketball. Still, if Dundon is approaching this like the numbers guy he’s known to be, there’s a path here. A path that starts with exceeding expectations, not just meeting them.
That’s a reasonable bar for a team that was projected to win fewer than 36 games last season before finishing with 42. The year started with controversy and didn’t look promising on paper, but the on-court results changed the mood in a hurry.
Now the expectations are different. Damian Lillard is back on the court, Ja Morant has been added as a two-time All-Star guard, Deni Avdija has taken a step forward, and Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe continue to develop. That changes the math for Nori immediately.
And the math is the point. Since the 2021-22 season, when the play-in era began with an 82-game schedule, the West’s sixth seed has needed at least 48 wins.
If Portland repeats its 16-33 mark against teams .500 and better, that number is out of reach. The Blazers need the new star power and shot creation to keep them afloat against top-end opponents.
That’s also where Nori’s contract future may get decided in the public eye. Portland doesn’t exactly dominate the national conversation, but it will get more chances this season to be seen.
Last year, the Blazers played just nine games across ESPN, NBC, Amazon Prime and Peacock, and they went 2-7 in those matchups. This year they have 11 games on those platforms, including dates with the Lakers, Thunder, Spurs, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Clippers and Warriors.
Winning those games would do more than pad a record. It would change the tone around the team and, by extension, around Dundon’s approach to the franchise.
It’s a lot easier to question an owner’s cost-cutting when the team isn’t winning. It’s a lot harder when the coach becomes part of the success story.
Of course, getting there won’t be simple. Portland’s defense was a source of pride last season, finishing with a 114.7 defensive rating, 14th in the league. That level may be tough to maintain with Lillard and Morant absorbing heavy minutes, especially if the offense doesn’t carry more of the load.
The Blazers were 20th in offensive rating last season at 114.4, and they were just 27th in field goal percentage from 3-10 feet. Deni Avdija can’t be the only player consistently getting into the paint and finishing possessions. Henderson and Sharpe could help, but Morant wasn’t brought in to stand around the perimeter.
He has to give Portland real pressure in the lane, whether that comes through floaters, straight-line drives or forcing the defense to collapse and create kickouts and dump-offs. That interior threat is what can open the rest of the floor.
And Portland badly needs that. The Blazers launched the third-most 3-pointers per game last season at 42.2, but hit only .343 of them, which ranked 28th.
They were also dead last in corner 3-point percentage at .340. Lillard should help there right away, but Morant’s gravity may be the bigger unlock for the perimeter.
Nori is walking into a difficult setup, no question. The backcourt is crowded, the frontcourt isn’t especially imposing, and the shot distribution won’t be simple. But there is enough here for a real jump if he can organize it properly.
If he can get Portland into the top six, if he can help reshape the conversation around the franchise, then he may do exactly what the Blazers are asking: earn another year.
In Other News...
Scoot Henderson Suddenly Has Everything To Prove In Portland
Scoot Henderson enters this season with the kind of urgency that follows a young guard when the runway gets shorter. After missing a significant stretch last year with a hamstring injury, he finished the season on a better note, and now he is back in Portland at a time when the backcourt picture has changed sharply around him. The Blazers have added more competition for minutes and touches, so Hendersons role no longer feels assured in the way it once did.
For Portland, this is about more than just one season of development. Henderson is in the final year of his rookie contract, which puts the organization in a spot where an extension could be on the table before opening night, while a slower start could send the conversation deeper into the future. Either way, his performance this year will shape how the Blazers view him, and how firmly he fits into the teams long-term plans. [Read more 🡒]
Scoot Henderson Debate Is Back For Blazers Fans
The Blazers 2023 draft call is back in the conversation now that The Hoop Collective ran a redraft of the lottery and slid Scoot Henderson down to No. 9, a sharp drop from where Portland took him at No. 3. It is the kind of exercise that always invites second-guessing, but it lands a little harder in Portland because the selection came right as the Damian Lillard era was ending and the organization was pivoting into a full rebuild.
For Blazers fans, the comparison point is not just Hendersons draft slot, but the alternatives that went after him, including Brandon Miller, who some analysts viewed as a better fit. Still, Henderson has shown growth in parts of his game and remains a central piece of Portlands young core, which is why the debate is less about whether he can help this team and more about whether the Blazers maximized the No. 3 pick when they made it. [Read more 🡒]