The Portland Trail Blazers' wonky roster still has flaws at shooting and wing depth. One player with an overlapping skill set is sharpshooting wing Vit Krejci, who Portland is going to need to step up this season.
The Blazers acquired Krejci from the Atlanta Hawks at February's deadline, shipping over two future second-round picks and center Duop Reath as a salary filler.
Many around the league circled the Blazers' front office as potential buyers at the deadline. While Western Conference teams like the Dallas Mavericks and even the Golden State Warriors were falling off and looking ahead to the strong 2026 draft class, Portland had its foot on the throttle as a team trending upwards in hopes of ending its four-year playoff drought.
The move to add more shooting on the margins in Krejci was less aggressive than some were anticipating. In theory, it was still a calculated and worthwhile trade by GM Joe Cronin. Portland has continually ranked bottom five in the league in three-point efficiency throughout this rebuild, and had a chance to address that for cheap.
Blazers need a Vit Krejci bounce-back season
Maybe there's a curse in Portland, but even Krejci couldn't knock down shots when he arrived in the Pacific Northwest.
This is someone who eclipsed 40 percent from beyond the arc in his past three seasons with the Hawks. He comes to the Blazers, and that efficiency drastically dips to 30.3 percent?
Fortunately for Portland, it was only a small sample size of 19 games. They also impressively made the postseason despite this failed deadline trade, which was supposed to put them over the top.
But it was an unexpected storyline to close out the season, as Krejci couldn't even be relied on to make shots down the stretch when it mattered the most. Interim head coach Tiago Splitter reduced Krejci's minutes to just four a game in their first-round playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
It's a fresh start in a sense for Krejci, who gets another chance to prove himself with a full offseason in Portland under new head coach Micah Nori.
The consistent high-level shooting for multiple seasons in Atlanta is far more telling about the type of talent the Blazers have on their hands than Krejci's post-trade struggles. He'll have every opportunity to put that slow start with the Blazers behind him, especially the way this offseason has surprisingly played out in terms of their roster construction.
Portland is hurting for wing depth now that Kris Murray, Jerami Grant, and Matisse Thybulle are all out of the picture.
Shaedon Sharpe was expected to play increased minutes at small forward as a result, and even that is no longer an option with the Blazers' high flyer sidelined for six months with a torn meniscus.
Sidy Cissoko should benefit from an increased role to give them some depth behind Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija, but is far more defensive-minded than Krejci.
This team overcame his struggles last season, but it could be far more difficult to make the postseason this time around if Krejci's shooting woes continue.
With the way the roster turned out following the Ja Morant blockbuster and follow-up moves, Portland desperately needs Krejci's shooting and wing help now more than ever. He could ultimately be the X-factor determining whether they can make the playoffs the new norm and officially put this rebuild behind them.
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