The Portland Trail Blazers successfully established a defensive identity throughout their rebuild. It was an emphasis not only for head coaches like Chauncey Billups, but also in their roster construction and the player archetypes targeted by general manager Joe Cronin. He placed an emphasis on length and athleticism, which oftentimes also led to defense and versatility.
Two-way wings like Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija finally arrived in Rip City after years of struggling in that area. It's something this franchise has lacked since former Blazer Nicolas Batum, who just recently announced his retirement from the NBA.
This newfound identity played a huge role in Portland's playoff push under interim head coach Tiago Splitter. They even had a much more competitive playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs than the 4-1 series final suggests, blowing double-digit leads in multiple games.
So if the Blazers finally found a working formula with Avdija and, to a lesser extent, Splitter, why did they willingly go so far away from it this summer?
The Blazers were a team to watch this offseason under aggressive new owner Tom Dundon. A trade felt inevitable, especially after Portland was surprisingly quiet at the deadline, with their only move coming on the margins with the acquisition of Atlanta Hawks sharpshooter Vit Krejci.
It even made sense that Portland finally parted ways with Jerami Grant, who fell out of the starting lineup and certainly didn't justify that massive salary as a declining, one-dimensional player. But what wasn't expected was that Ja Morant would be that splash by Dundon and salary filler for Grant.
Ja Morant trade created a backcourt headache in Portland
It's even more puzzling considering Portland was already set to get Damian Lillard back this season, who appears on track to open the 2026-27 season in a Blazers jersey after taking a gap year to recover from a torn Achilles.
On one hand, Lillard should at least compensate for the shooting woes Morant brings to Portland's offense -- an area that has already been an Achilles heel throughout this entire rebuild. On the other hand, Lillard's return made perfect sense because the Blazers roster was finally well equipped to cover his defensive limitations.
It's largely thanks to the Lillard blockbuster trade, which has pretty much come full circle, that Portland has the pieces in place to welcome him back without sacrificing that defensive identity entirely.
Donovan Clingan and Toumani Camara are already in the conversation as the league's best defensive duo, with both entering the season with a legitimate chance at making All-Defensive selection. Jrue Holiday even proved he can still make a strong two-way impact at this stage of his career. But throwing Morant into the mix alongside Lillard now takes that pendulum too far in the other direction when it comes to roster balance.
While some project Lillard and Morant to share the backcourt as starters to open the season, head coach Micah Nori must consider staggering their minutes and bringing one off the bench. Versatile veteran Jrue Holiday is a far better fit alongside either Lillard or Morant thanks to his positional size, defense, and even shooting compared to Morant.
Micah Nori should decide between Ja Morant or Damian Lillard
Nori has already hinted that he wouldn't be afraid to bench Morant if that's in the best interest of this team, saying he "takes people at their word" on SiriusXM NBA Radio earlier in the offseason.
This is an evolving situation as Portland must see whether Lillard returns to form and whether Morant benefits from a change of scenery. Regardless of who this team's starting point guard is, Nori essentially has to choose one or the other.
We should have a better sense of that answer as training camp opens up, but Nori immediately faces a difficult decision regarding who to start. Even with Shaedon Sharpe expected to miss six months with a torn meniscus, the Blazers have a deep roster full of seven or eight players capable of making a case.
It's a good problem for Nori to have as a first-year coach taking over a talented playoff team. He just has to be careful not to throw the Blazers' defensive identity down the drain with this important decision. To start both would risk Portland having perhaps the worst defensive backcourt in NBA history.
It was already a problem during the Lillard-CJ McCollum era, particularly when it came to translating regular-season wins to postseason success. A Lillard-Morant backcourt would be laughably worse fit to the point where, despite the immense talent, it shouldn't even be in consideration for Nori.
It's not necessarily a bad thing that they found better roster balance this offseason, as the playoffs showed this offense stalls far too often and relies too heavily on Avdija. But they were already set to address that problem with Lillard's return, with his added floor spacing complementing this existing young core.
In Morant, the overlapping skill set with Avdija and the ball-dominant nature of his downhill game forces Nori and the Blazers to reinvent the wheel too much. That could ultimately make Lillard the cleaner fit in the starting lineup, which again raises the question of whether this Morant trade was worth the backcourt headache for Portland.
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