The Portland Trail Blazers enter the 2026-27 season with a roster largely consisting of guards and bigs. Forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray were shipped to Memphis in the trade for Ja Morant, while Portland also saw veteran Matisse Thybulle walk in free agency to join the rival Los Angeles Lakers.
Even at Media Day, general manager Joe Cronin essentially admitted this roster is still a work in progress, emphasizing that the Morant deal, in particular, was more of a talent upgrade at the expense of roster fit.
However, Cronin is more optimistic that both aspects will work out in Portland's favor. From a talent-upgrade perspective, he mentions that they were able to land a former two-time All-Star for cheap, who should be in his prime at just 27. Cronin also doesn't seem overly concerned about roster fit, both with Morant's arrival and with their lopsided roster as a whole.
Jrue Holiday is key to making Blazers' Ja Morant trade work
One huge reason? The versatility Jrue Holiday offers as a guard who can defend players larger than his 6-foot-4 frame suggests.
“Bodies-wise, we’re probably a little thin there. We’re going to play Jrue Holiday some there, which will help our depth there and versatility and just overall skill set competence," Cronin said. "Positionally, we have a lot of guards and a lot of bigs and not as many forwards and wings, but we really believe in the forwards and wings that we have. So, you know, like any team and in any season, health matters. If we have some injuries, particularly at the small forward, power forward positions, we could get into some depth issues. So we've got to do our best to stay fresh and healthy.”
Holiday may be 36, but he's the perfect versatile guard for the positionaless era of the modern NBA. We even saw Holiday relatively hold his own against 7-foot-4 alien Victor Wembanyama in their first-round playoff matchup against the San Antonio Spurs.
So while it's easy to look at the Blazers and see roster imbalance positionally, the versatility Holiday provides is a huge reason Cronin isn't overly concerned.
After Portland surprisingly acquired Morant, many assumed Holiday would be the next domino to fall to resolve this new backcourt logjam in the Pacific Northwest. However, Cronin and the Blazers maintained they aren't actively shopping Holiday, even with Morant now in the picture.
Those who question that decision look at it through a more positional lens, when the modern NBA actually embraces versatile, positionless players like Holiday. That will be an underrated component to making this entire formula work for the Blazers this season, making it easy to understand why Cronin still wanted to retain Holiday... this time around.
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