Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Blazers made a bold move by acquiring a polarizing point guard less than 24 hours before NBA free agency opens.
- This trade creates a logjam at guard that forces tough decisions for new head coach Micah Nori.
- The frontcourt looks clearer but the next step likely involves moving multiple guards to create roster balance.
For as much digital ink had been spilled in recent weeks speculating as to where Ja Morant might be playing next, it turns out the answer was one that nobody saw coming. On Monday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the start of NBA free agency, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the Portland Trail Blazers had agreed to acquire the polarizing point guard from the Memphis Grizzlies in return for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.
On the one hand, that's hardly a prohibitive price to pay for a player of Morant's upside, though that upside gets more and more theoretical the farther he gets from the last time we saw him healthy and productive. Grant's contract wasn't paying him all that much less over the next two years than Morant's, and while Murray was a first-round pick in 2023, he's yet to really pop in the NBA and is duplicative of multiple other wings on Portland's roster.
On the other hand, though ... I mean, how is any of this supposed to fit? It's entirely possible that this move is merely a precursor to something else — a deal for Jaylen Brown, perhaps? — down the line. Blazers fans had better hope so, though, because as things stand this is a depth chart that's tough to make sense of.
Portland Trail Blazers projected starting lineup and depth chart after Ja Morant trade
Player | Position | Bench |
|---|---|---|
Ja Morant | PG | Scoot Henderson |
Jrue Holiday | SG | Damian Lillard |
Toumani Camara | SF | Shaedon Sharpe |
Deni Avdija | PF | Matisse Thybulle |
Donovan Clingan | C | Robert Williams III |
It feels heretical to slot Lillard in as Portland's sixth man, and maybe it is, but I'm struggling to see any other way to make this current group work. Between Lillard, Morant and Scoot Henderson (not to mention Shaedon Sharpe), that's an awful lot of point guards to keep happy, and it's difficult to imagine Morant and Lillard sharing a starting lineup that manages to stay afloat defensively.
So instead, Jrue Holiday keeps his starting spot at the 2, bringing some much-needed strength and spot-up shooting around Morant. That relegates all three of Lillard, Henderson and Sharpe to the bench, tasking new head coach Micah Nori with coming up with different permutations around so many ball-handlers.
The frontcourt is at least a simpler situation, with Avdija and Clingan written in ink and Camara coming off of a breakout season in which he started all 82 games and knocked down 37 percent of his 3s while playing excellent wing defense. He and Matisse Thybulle will be even more important as perimeter stoppers with Morant in the fold.
Really, though, it's hard to escape the feeling that this is just the beginning of a transformative offseason in Portland. Taking a buy-low swing on Morant makes some sense, but fitting him with this current roster simply doesn't. Dealing from their glut of guards — Sharpe and Henderson plus some more salary filler for Brown, say — would help smooth things out and create quite a formidable lineup in a Western Conference that is very much in flux. Assuming, that is, that Morant is able to stay out of trouble and stay on the court.
Add us as a preferred source on Google