The Portland Trail Blazers had one of the stranger offseasons this summer. Despite calls for the team to pivot fully to a youth movement, the front office opted to double down on their win-now cause. The approach was also peculiar, bringing in two-time All-Star Ja Morant amid their existing logjam in the backcourt.
Now, the Blazers have three former All-Star guards in Morant, the returning Damian Lillard and veteran Jrue Holiday. Incoming fourth-year guard Scoot Henderson, who performed well in the playoffs, will also be requiring heavy minutes next season. That makes it all the more interesting to see how Portland’s new coaching staff intends to make their guard rotation work.
There is certainly a world where that logjam actually benefits Portland, but in the jampacked West, that might not even matter that much. As such, it feels inevitable that the Blazers will eventually pull off a blockbuster trade next season involving one of their highly touted guards.
Henderson is probably going to have a safer footing in Portland given his youth. Lillard is also likely to enjoy stronger staying power given that he is a local hero. That makes Morant and Holiday as the players who are more likely to end up in a lot of trade machines in the middle of the season.
There is some uncertainty with regard to Morant, but he is not far removed from his best years in the league. Meanwhile, Holiday is a highly valued veteran who can serve different roles, which makes him a very attractive piece for teams in dire need of a change or support in their backcourt.
Portland’s backcourt logjam is pretty unique in scale. But it opens up an opportunity to balance the roster while also extracting assets which it can leverage later.