The 2024 NBA trade deadline has come and gone. Malcolm Brogdon and Jerami Grant are still in Portland, while the Trail Blazers added Delano Banton from the Boston Celtics and called up Ashton Hagans from the Rip City Remix and signed him to a 10-day contract.
The lack of activity from Portland General Manager Joe Cronin has some Blazers fans perturbed; regardless, this is the roster head coach Chauncey Billups has to work with for the rest of the 2023-24 season (Hagans and other potential 10-day signings notwithstanding).
The Trail Blazers are not postseason-bound; at 15-37, Portland is headed for a top-5 draft pick and will likely siphon minutes away from Brogdon, Grant, Matisse Thybulle and other veterans over the final two months and allow Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons and other young, potential cornerstones take the reigns.
Still, those vets have their place in the pecking order. Cronin kept them on the roster for a reason.
So how does Billups' rotation shake out between now and the Blazers' final game on April 14?
Ranking the 10 Trail Blazers who need the most minutes the rest of the 2023-24 season
Here are the Portland players who should get the most run down the stretch of this regular season, ranked from 10 to 1.
10. Toumani Camara
Despite being a rookie, Camara is a relatively finished product as a four-year college starter who will be 24 years old at the beginning of next season.
Make no mistake: He may be the best on-court asset Portland landed in the Damian Lillard trade. He's been more than a pleasant surprise. Camara played his way into the starting lineup for 31 games and has proven to be a reliable defender at 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds. He's going to be a part of the rotation for as long as he's in Portland.
But he's an already well-rounded player who fits a role. The likelihood he turns into anything more is slim. All Toumani needs to unlock now is a respectable 3-point shot - he's shooting just 29.1 percent from deep - and that's a skill he can work on during the offseason.
9. Rayan Rupert
Rupert is above Camara on this list because of his upside, which remains enticing despite a quiet rookie season.
His physical profile in itself is impressive: A switchable wing defender who plays hungry, can guard 1 through 4 and use his 7-3 wingspan to pester opponents and cause deflections and turnovers. Physically, Rupert has everything a team could want in a high-level three-and-D starter with the potential for even more.
At 19 years old with a skinny frame, though, the French prospect wasn't ready for the physicality of the NBA, so he's spent most of the season with the Remix in the G League. But he's been better than expected.
Rupert is averaging a steal a game and has a defensive rating of 109.6; he isn't a lockdown man-to-man defender yet, but he's shown glimpses of why the Blazers snagged him when he fell to the 43rd pick in the 2023 draft. Offensively, though, is where he's surprisingly shined.
He's averaging 13.5 points per game and is shooting 38.4 percent from three on more than 4 attempts. He's also pulling down 6.3 rebounds, which is a plus considering his lean frame and competition against stronger, mostly older players.
Rupert deserves some minutes with the Blazers to see if he can translate those promising three-and-D skills to the NBA level, but it's best for his development to continue playing most of his minutes in the G League.
8. Ibou Badji
Badji has significant upside on the defensive end of the floor. His 7-1 height and 7-foot-9 wingspan, along with his athleticism, give him a chance to become a high-level rim protector in the NBA. He's gotten some run with the Blazers and has flashed that upside to the tune of 19 blocks in 15 games. He deserves more playing time down the stretch.
Like Rupert, though, he would still benefit from getting more starts and more minutes with the Remix rather than playing spot minutes in Portland. He's still 21 years old and will be behind Deandre Ayton and Duop Reath in the center pecking order when both are healthy.
7. Jerami Grant
Injuries considered, Grant has been Portland's best player this season. He's averaging 21.9 points and is connecting on 40.5 percent of his 5.2 threes per game and has played more minutes than any other Blazer. He still deserves to start games and be a major part of Billups' rotation over the final two months.
Yes, Portland wants the highest draft pick possible, but the team is in no danger of falling outside of the top five in the lottery standings, and maintaining a competitive environment is still key to the development of the Blazers' young players. The 29-year-old still needs to be on the floor as long as he's healthy and producing at a high level.
6. Malcolm Brogdon
There's a reason (more than one, apparently) that Malcolm Brogdon was nearly untouchable at the trade deadline. Portland values his veteran leadership, both on the court and off. The 31-year-old has allowed Billups and the Blazers to bring Henderson along at a reasonable pace, which has been vital given Scoot's early struggles.
While the rookie has improved over the last few months, Brogdon still needs to see the floor, not only as a mentor but as a productive reserve guard. In nearly 29 minutes per night, he's posting averages of 15.7 points and 5.5 assists while shooting 41.2 percent from three and consistently playing effective defense.
Brogdon's own struggles with injury will likely slow him down (like they are now), but with Shaedon Sharpe potentially out for the rest of the year and the likes of Ashton Hagans and Delano Banton the only other guards on the roster outside of Henderson and Simons, the veteran will be needed in the stretch run of the regular season.
5. Kris Murray
Murray has seen an uptick in playing time - he's averaging 21 minutes a night over the Blazers' last four games with one start - and that appears to be more than just a trend. Regardless of his status as a rookie or Portland's status as a tanking team, the 23-year-old has earned the chance at more playing time.
His averages of 5.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.0 steals don't jump off the page and he's only attempting 5.3 shots a night, but Murray still stands out. He may not shoot a lot, but he makes a high percentage of the ones he takes, and he has a knack for hitting ones that matter.
At 23, Murray's defensive skills were supposed to translate to the pro game immediately and make him an instant-impact rookie; it took until February, but his size (6-8, 220 pounds), length (6-11 wingspan) and IQ are finally showing up on an NBA floor. He's rotating more smoothly on defense and guarding on an island better than he was earlier this year.
Murray simply looks more comfortable now than at any point this season, and he's earned himself more minutes.
4. Anfernee Simons
Simons has established himself as a nightly 20- to 25-point-per-game scorer in the NBA. He's missed significant time this season, only playing in 29 games, but he's been as advertised his first year as Portland's go-to offensive option.
Ant is averaging 23.4 ppg and is connecting on 38.8 percent of his 8.8 threes. His 28.8 usage rate is a career-high and he's doing more with the ball in his hands, averaging a career-high 4.2 free-throw attempts (he's never averaged more than 3) and shooting a career-high 90.9 percent when he gets there (he's never shot above 90).
But Simons is still only 24 and has missed 23 games in a season meant to see him develop into the Blazers' best player. And though he's averaging 5.3 assists (another career high), more practice as a facilitator would only grow his game further as a combo guard rather than a pure scorer.
Even if he's already entrenched as one of Portland's stars, Simons needs all the playing time he can get, assuming he can stay healthy.
3. Deandre Ayton
Deandre Ayton needs major minutes the rest of this season because the Trail Blazers may have to make a major decision on his future. Already.
Ayton came to Portland to be the franchise's center of the future. He was the centerpiece of the Lillard trade and Billups called him a top-five center in the NBA before the season.
He's not been anything close to that.
He's only played 35 games and is averaging 13.9 points and 0.8 blocks, both career lows. He averaged an empty double-double on championship-level Phoenix teams and has somehow been even worse on a bad Blazers team. And this is all ignoring the off-court reports that recently surfaced about his tantrums and tirades.
It's a critical last few months for both Ayton and the Blazers to see if he really can be Portland's franchise center or if it's time to rethink that position after just one season.
2. Jabari Walker
Walker has been a revelation in his second NBA campaign. The 57th pick in the 2022 draft averaged 11.1 minutes across 56 games as a rookie, scoring 3.9 points on inefficient shooting numbers. This year, he's already played in 48 games, starting 11 and averaging 8.4 points and 6.4 rebounds in twice as many minutes.
Still only 21 years old, Walker has become an invaluable member of the Blazers' rotation. His effort and hustle on a nightly basis are evident. He's a capable offensive rebounder and underrated passer. He's often at the center of scrums and tipped balls after missed shots, creating extra possessions for a team that doesn't get many and converts on even fewer.
His shot attempts have increased across the board, but so has his efficiency. He's still shooting just 27.8 percent from three, though, and more than 61 percent of his field-goal attempts come within 10 feet. Walker needs to play significant minutes the rest of the way so the Blazers can find out if his ceiling is as a high-level role player or if he can become more.
1. Scoot Henderson
This one's pretty self-explanatory: Portland drafted Henderson with the third pick in the 2023 draft with the hopes he would become the next great Blazer after Lillard's departure. His career got off to a rocky start, but he's shown legitimate improvement since then.
It's time to take the reigns completely off and see what Scoot can do as the leader of an NBA offense.
From October to December, the 19-year-old posted averages of 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists on shooting splits of 33/20/67. He turned the ball over nearly 4 times per game and averaged 4 personal fouls a night.
Since then, he's averaging 14 ppg, 3.2 rpg and 4.7 apg while cutting his turnovers and fouls down to 2.8 a night. He's shooting 35 percent from three on almost 4 attempts per game and is getting to the line almost 4 times a night and shooting 83 percent from the stripe. He posted four double-doubles and had a 33-point, 7-rebound, 9-assist performance against the Suns on Jan. 14.
He's averaging 27 minutes during that 32-game span and even fewer since the turn of the calendar year. With Sharpe out and Brogdon injured, the Trail Blazers' backcourt belongs to Scoot and Simons. It should remain that way for the rest of the '23-24 season.