The Portland Trail Blazers overlooked Ja Morant's questionable fit on this roster when they acquired him from the Memphis Grizzlies. They viewed it as a buy-low opportunity to add more talent, upgrading their star power while figuring out how the pieces best fit together later.
Could they do the same with DeMar DeRozan? ESPN's Shams Charania reports that the Sacramento Kings recently bought out DeRozan, suddenly making him one of the top free agents on the board.
Blazers' Ja Morant trade could be a blueprint to a DeMar DeRozan move
To be clear, we're not thrilled about the idea of Portland potentially pursuing DeRozan. It's not necessarily the concern about their guard logjam, considering DeRozan played small forward 55 percent of the time and power forward 39 percent of the time last season with Sacramento. Rather, it's the glaring floor spacing concerns for someone who has hovered around 32-33 percent from beyond the arc for four consecutive seasons.
Portland ranked 28th in the league in three-point efficiency, defeating the purpose of an analytically driven shot profile for a team that attempted the third-most threes. That was a point of emphasis by GM Joe Cronin entering the offseason, highlighting how they played too many possessions in the mud in their first-round playoff exit to the San Antonio Spurs. Instead, Portland's front office surprisingly took this roster in the opposite direction, prioritizing value over fit.
That seems to be new owner Tom Dundon's approach to roster construction, which, to be fair, recently worked out well in Carolina as the Hurricanes hoisted the Stanley Cup. Still, we expect some growing pains in Portland as Dundon learns this isn't a cookie-cutter approach.
Portland is slowly becoming a team of misfit toys, which may help bridge the star power gap compared to the Western Conference juggernauts like San Antonio and Oklahoma City, but it isn't a viable path to a winning formula in this league.
Blazers' new head coach, Micah Nori, already has his work cut out for him trying to make this team full of point guards and centers mesh together in a league where wing archetypes are more important than ever.
Though DeRozan can effectively fill the forward slot better than many expect, his inability to space the floor also means he needs to be surrounded by the right pieces. Portland is the exact opposite of a team that would fit well with that style of play, and, to an extent, we've already seen that with Shaedon Sharpe's midrange-oriented game.
Time will tell whether the Blazers have legitimate interest in DeRozan. Though if the Morant trade was any indication, this could be another move where they continue to prioritize talent over fit.
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