This has been a busy week for the Portland Trail Blazers. After a quiet night in the 2026 NBA Draft, the Blazers have made a few splashes. They traded Jerami Grant and Kris Murray to the Memphis Grizzlies for Ja Morant. They re-signed reserve center Robert Williams III and inked free agent center Branden Carlson to a one-year deal. They’ve even been rumored to be flirting with forward Kelly Oubre, though he eventually signed elsewhere. But hey, those Jaylen Brown trade rumors aren’t all the way dead
yet, right? That’s more basketball-related news than Portland generated during the entire season last year. (Yeah, yeah. Arenas and owners. I know.)
As we pause to take a breath before the next step, let’s take a look at the winners and losers in this recent flurry.
Winner: Joe Cronin
Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin has gotten a somewhat unfair rap of being placid since he took over control of the front office in 2021. He had the unenviable task of deconstructing a team that had made the playoffs for the better part of a decade, led by a franchise-transcending superstar. He then presided over a slow, measured rebuild with success measured in baby steps, not grand gestures.
It doesn’t get much grander, or more dramatic, than trading what amounted to leftover roster members (and zero draft picks) for Morant. Williams (apparently) calling up the franchise with a request to re-sign him is a feel-good story. The injury-protection on his contract is nothing short of brilliant for the Blazers. Even signing little-known Carlson is drawing praise from smart basketball analysts.
Joe Cronin?!? Is that you? This resembles the moment when Ricky takes the dance floor in Better Off Dead and finally gets the chance to strut his stuff.
Whether Cronin is able to translate that into the penultimate scene where the semi-despised Ricky finally ditches his mother, gets the girl, and redeems himself by striding off with her into the sunset (or mountain-scape, anyway) remains to be seen. Morant is not guaranteed to help the Blazers to more wins once the ball tips. Even if he does, other teams made bigger moves in this same span.
But even if Pat Riley and the Toronto Raptors crew still lay claim to the role of Lane Meyer, this has still been a whirlwind—and proof of courage—for Cronin and the Trail Blazers staff. Long-term effects aside, fans are more excited about Portland’s moves than they have been in a long while.
Loser: Deni Avdija
2025-26 was Deni Avdija’s year. He earned his first NBA All-Star nomination, scoring a team- and career-high 24.2 points per game. The ball was in his hands on offense. He became the hub for Portland in a drive-and-dish attack that suited his skills perfectly.
A re-emerging Damian Lillard was going to provide competition for Avdija in ball-control, scoring dominance, and on-court focus in the season to come. But Lillard is aging and returning from injury. Avdija still had the lead position, particularly since Dame’s three-point shot theoretically allows him to play off-ball. The game might slow down somewhat and Deni might have to share, but it would still be his team, probably.
The Morant trade now gives the Blazers a guard who is just as ball-dominant as Avdija, just as focused on scoring, and lacks the three-point shot to play Robin to Deni’s Batman. Morant is 26, not 36. He needs Deni’s touches and floor space to reestablish himself as a star.
Even worse, Morant and Avdija prosper in different styles of play. The drive-and-kick suits Deni best. That’s also the offense that got Morant’s original coach, Taylor Jenkins, fired. Why? Because Morant likes heavy doses of the pick-and-roll, the offense that Tiago Splitter basically dispensed with in favor of the ball-sharing, floor-reading, drive-intensive approach that made Deni an All-Star. Putting Avdija off-ball while Morant runs the pick sets won’t be much better than putting Ja off-ball while Deni drives and kicks to him for threes.
Presumably this will get hashed out somehow, but most of the time when you get clashes like this, the compromise leaves both players at less than their maximum production. That’s not good news for Avdija.
Winner (for now): Donovan Clingan
Adding Morant to the lineup is going to tax a backcourt defense that had just begun to come into its own last season. It’s not likely that Dame and Ja are going to set the world on fire defensively as a pair of 6’2 scoring stars. That’s going to put pressure on Portland’s bigger defenders. Nowhere will this be truer than in the middle of the lane, where Donovan Clingan resides.
The Blazers will have to find a way to get their smaller players to chase to the perimeter, covering the arc on opponent kick-outs. If Clingan starts roaming out there this year with small guards as teammates, Portland is almost certainly cooked. But if Donovan can stay home, he’s going to be the foundation piece of the defense. He may become the most indispensable member of the roster.
There’s a caveat, though. Two, really.
- That pressure is going to put him in contact with a lot of drivers. If he starts collecting fouls, this isn’t going to work.
- There’s also a chance that icing Clingan down into the lane simply won’t be sufficient. That would nerf his significance and maybe even put him on the trade block.
For now, though, Clingan has his assignment. It’s a unique one. His space eating and shot-blocking just got inherently more valuable. Opportunity knocks, a big win for the third-year center.
Loser (for now) Winner (for later): Robert Williams III
Robert Williams III was rumored to be one of the hotter free agent centers on the market this summer. He ended up signing for less than a full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, a three-year contract that technically only guarantees him $5 million for the final two seasons. As much as the story about him requesting to come back to Portland makes people feel good, you have to believe the market was softer than projected for Williams. Real talk: had all three years of the contract been guaranteed, he would have been assured of $25 million more in salary. Had someone else offered him that, well…
That said, Williams may not be that bad off. Kelly Oubre signed for a little over $8 million per season. RWIII got double that in one year, more than Oubre’s amount guaranteed no matter what. Mitchell Robinson just signed for $47 million over three years (with Boston, which may have impacted the market for Williams). Timelord will get nearly that much if he stays healthy. That’s not bad company to keep.
Health allowing, staying in town may end up being a blessing for Williams. The reason is encapsulated in the section just above. Donovan Clingan’s relative immobility may end up being untenable if Portland’s perimeter defenders can’t cover opposing shooters. If Portland’s defensive woes mandate a more mobile, athletic center, guess who fits that bill? Chances are, if Williams is healthy, he’s going to start looking really good for this team just about the time the wheels start falling off. Being a quiet franchise savior isn’t a bad thing, particularly if he’s betting on himself and looking towards the next contract.
Winner: Damian Lillard
Normally you’d think competition from Morant for touches and spotlight would marginalize Damian Lillard. But this is Damian Lillard. Nothing is going to dim his light in Portland.
There was a potential problem in the offing, though. Lillard is coming off an extended injury and he is in the late stages of his career. It’s really, really unlikely that he’s going to look and perform like 27-year-old Dame on a nightly basis. But that’s more or less what fans were expecting. Before this week, Lillard was the main—in some ways only—addition to the roster for the coming season. Underperforming on those dreams was the one thing that could cause people to shrug at the franchise star.
Now Dame’s return appears to be teflon-coated.
First, he’s the only one of Portland’s three stars with a confident three-point shot. His overall percentages don’t quite match his leaguewide reputation, but he’s Damian Freaking Lillard. Nobody is ever going to be sad when he launches from distance. It’s possible that adding a diet of relatively free attempts off the ball will add to his accuracy. If not, he’s still got an unlimited green light.
Second, it’s perfectly possible that the Blazers fall flat on their faces with this new lineup the same way they could have with the old one. Dame wouldn’t necessarily have saved them if that happened. He won’t now either. But there’s zero chance he’ll be the focal point of consternation.
Whatever you think about the talent and offensive-primacy balance between Lillard and Morant, there’s zero doubt which one will be blamed more heavily for any lack of success. Hint: It’s not the guy who set the world on fire in Portland just by signing to rehab an injury last summer, nor is it the guy who sat in on coaching interviews this spring, nor is it the guy whose face will be foremost on Blazers promotional material (and the number one ask for press interviews) come fall. Lillard just went from a “can’t win” situation of muted criticism if the team didn’t soar past the moon to a “can’t lose” position of other people being out on a limb while he plays to his strengths…and popularity.
Morant’s arrival—and the need to work out primacy between Ja and Deni—puts Dame’s return back into reasonable perspective. He’s now a huge potential addition rather than the key to the season.
Loser: The Young Guys
If you step back to the 10,000-foot view, the recent Blazers moves seem to be a referendum on Mike Schmitz and every Blazers draft pick of the rebuild save Clingan.
Scoot Henderson was already the third point guard in Portland’s rotation behind Lillard and Jrue Holiday. Now he’s the fourth. But at least you could see him playing alongside some of his teammates. Adding Williams and Carlson gave the Blazers their second- and third-string centers. That sends Yang Hansen into fourth position on the depth chart as well. Unless he develops a bankable three-point shot and becomes a power forward (on offense, anyway, God help the defense), he’s not going to see the light of day.
Even Shaedon Sharpe is going to find his scoring role usurped by the Big Three. Morant can dish to him, but what’s Shaedon going to do with the ball after that with the defense already collapsed around Ja?
This is not a good look for Portland’s young players. It feels like somebody’s going to get traded, either some of those second and third players or the young guys themselves. Until then, it looks like Henderson, Sharpe, and Hansen have even more stacked against them. Whatever a vote of confidence looks like, this is pretty much the opposite.
TBD: Ja Morant
The question of the day is whether Ja Morant is a winner or loser in all of this. Honestly, it depends on him.
He’s going to be a winner for sure as he gets the chance to resurrect his career. He’ll go from dead in the water to a potentially valuable piece on a winning team. He’s going to get chances in Portland he would no longer have gotten in Memphis. That bodes well for his next contract, the one that will take him through his prime.
I’m not sure Morant or anyone around him is ready for the fishbowl he’s going to experience in Portland, though. He’s already going to be Public Enemy #1 if the defense stinks and the team starts losing, no matter who else contributes to those woes. If he or his entourage add any off-court issues, he’s going to get roasted by fans and media alike. Some of that already appears to be happening and he hasn’t even set foot in town yet.
The gate for Morant will be narrower than it would have been in Memphis where he was a franchise figure to many. It’ll also be narrower than it would have been for, say, CJ McCollum had he returned, even though McCollum would have caused some of the same on-court deficits. Morant will get a near-full reset, but the ditches on the side of the road are deep, unforgiving, and publicly-exposed.
The biggest way around this conundrum is for the team to win. As long as that happens, everything is good. If not, though, this may be a tough experience for Ja.
Winner: Tom Dundon
Since he hit town, new Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon has created the wrong kind of headlines. This week, Blazers fans can mention him in a context that doesn’t include firings, public-relations stumbles, public arena financing, and relocating the team. No matter how likely these moves are to work out, at least they’re basketball moves, made fairly aggressively, with plenty of publicity attached. That’s something for Portland fans to latch onto, a step forward in their regard for the owner maybe.
Did we miss any winners or losers? Share your thoughts or corrections in the comments section below!
