The Portland Trail Blazers finished the season seventh in injured cash totals at $56.8 million, according to Sportrac's NBA Injured List Tracker. It's also worth noting every other team to finish ahead of them wound up being a lottery team. Take that as you will, but there's no denying that Portland was one of the most injury-riddled teams in the league last season.
That's not even accounting for Deni Avdija's back injury that lingered beyond the All-Star Break, negatively affecting the lift on this three-point shot in particular. Even rookie Yang Hansen was receiving minutes at times when the Blazers likely would've preferred him remaining in the G League.
It makes it all the more impressive that interim head coach Tiago Splitter was able to get this team to end its playoff drought.
Trail Blazers have more reliable depth this season
Now, the Blazers look to bring back a healthy Damian Lillard into what will hopefully be a less injury-prone roster. One huge addition-by-subtraction move they made this offseason to help in that department is the free agency departure of Matisse Thybulle, who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.
That's a worthwhile pickup by the Lakers given their dire need for two-way wings after an eventful offseason. Especially since their goal has been to surround superstar Luka Doncic with a roster similar to what he had during his 2024 Finals run with the Dallas Mavericks, a healthy Thybulle could be a contributing piece to that unfinished puzzle.
For Portland, a potential reunion apparently wasn't deemed to be as beneficial. Largely in part because the phrase "a healthy Thybulle" should really have a giant asterisk next to it. That's a version of Thybulle that the Blazers unfortunately haven't seen for quite some time. He totaled just 15 games played in 2024-25, followed up by 30 last season.
Portland simply can't rely on that level of unavailability. They already have a roster crunch because of their multi-year Yang Hansen project, essentially putting the roster at 14 before the season even begins. Last season, Portland also had Lillard's gap year to navigate, meaning Thybulle took that roster count down to 12 more often than not.
Lillard is back now, but you can see how quickly the Blazers' perceived depth becomes a weakness with such injury-prone players.
Fortunately, Robert Williams III was far improved in that department, as his 59 games played were the second most in his career since he totaled 61 with the 2021-22 Boston Celtics. The Blazers may have figured out a working formula with Williams in terms of his injury maintenance, whether that was a minutes restriction or making him unavailable to play back-to-backs.
That wasn't the case with Thybulle, which makes sense, given why Portland ultimately felt comfortable continuing to invest in their two-way rim protector instead of their two-way wing. Not to mention all of the injury protections in Williams' uniquely structured contract.
They still lack depth at the wing, but last season proved that Portland could no longer impose a self-inflicted burden on itself by rostering so many projects and injury-prone players, all while trying to make the playoffs.
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