The Portland Trail Blazers' depth gives head coach Chauncey Billups numerous starting lineup options heading into the 2025-26 season. Surprisingly, it's possible that their starting five may not include the recently acquired Jrue Holiday.
Zach Lowe recently predicted on The Zach Lowe Show that Portland's starting lineup would be Scoot Henderson, Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija, Jerami Grant, and Deandre Ayton.
As Lowe notes, it's possible that Billups elects to start Shaedon Sharpe and/or Holiday instead. Not to mention, there's still the remaining offseason for general manager Joe Cronin to potentially trade one of Grant or Ayton.
Our immediate reaction to this proposed starting five was that it's a lot of money to pay Holiday to bring him off the bench. Still, Lowe makes a compelling case for Scoot Henderson to start after trading away Anfernee Simons cleared the path for him.
Could the Blazers bring Jrue Holiday off the bench?
"Scoot made real strides as a scorer around the basket; his three-point shooting and midrange are only so-so. But unlike Simons, there are real signs that Scoot is a guy who can make his teammates better and will defend really, really hard. Simons is like a bottom 15th percentile defender in the NBA," said Lowe.
Regardless of who starts, it's clear that Holiday is going to be a huge part of their defensive-minded identity. The luxury of having a versatile guard like Holiday is that he can play -- and, most importantly, defend -- multiple positions. That's going to fit in perfectly with the Blazers' roster and other guys who share that valuable trait, such as Avdija and Camara.
"One thing I love about our roster is the different looks we can provide. If we want to go extremely big, we can do that. If we want to do small ball, we can do that. If we want to put defensive stoppers everywhere, we can do that," Cronin said in the post-draft press conference.
Holiday has a tremendous reputation around the league for being one of the best teammates and a true professional. That said, one has to wonder if Holiday would be bought into the idea of coming off the bench for a non-contending team like Portland, especially given the conflicting reports about how he felt about the trade in the first place.
Since the Blazers traded for Holiday, intending to keep him as part of their playoff push, one would assume his roster spot and starting role would be safe heading into next season. However, these recent developments have created enough uncertainty to make neither quite the locks they once appeared to be.