When it was announced the Portland Trail Blazers traded for controversial point guard Ja Morant, I’m sure I was pretty much like all of you. My brain was blasted by a dopamine cocktail consisting of shock, terror, excitement, we made a trade!, anger, confusion and a “Joe Cronin, you sly dog, you.” The PTSD from experiencing several seasons of an undersized scoring backcourt that played terrible defense came crashing down like a tidal wave of emotion onto the shores of Blazers Edge. Sigh…it looks
like the Blazers are back in the business of operating a VIP line of uncontested layups for their opponents. Fans finally just recovered from that trauma, and now Portland wants to replay 2016-2023? Only this time they’re doing it with a 36-year-old Damian Lillard coming back from an Achilles tendon tear.
The frustration about defense and a suddenly overcrowded backcourt tilting the roster off its axis is only the beginning for detractors of the trade.
- Ja can’t shoot. Have you seen that true shooting percentage? How does that help with the team’s shooting problems?
- Ja and Dame have a combined career usage average of 30%, while Deni at 29% last season also waves “Hi.” How will three high-usage creators successfully share the ball?
- Ja is often injured (having played in just 79 of the last 246 regular-season games), and it’s taken away his athleticism that made him special.
- Ja can be a knucklehead, and we’ll be waiting for the other shoe that could drop.
- Is this the end of the line for Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe?
- There has to be another trade coming, and this is just the first step, right? RIGHT?! I hope this roster isn’t this unbalanced when the season starts.
These are some of the hand-wringing thoughts swirling around the heads in Rip City with Morant joining the squad. Without another trade this offseason, one can only hope this Weird Science experiment produces a Lisa and not a Chet.
Setting the myriad of valid concerns and grievances aside, there is a universe where the Blazers catch lightning in a bottle. Where the Association has an unexpected juggernaut arise from the Pacific Northwest. To get there with the current roster, several things have to go right.
What does the optimistic side of the “hope” spectrum look like with the Ja Morant trade?
Career Rebirth
Thus far, Ja Morant has had a supernova career. It burned with the intensity of a thousand suns for the first four years, before fading out in spectacular fashion. The best-case scenario for Portland is that experience humbled Morant and he’s garnered some maturity through it all. If he comes in determined with the right attitude for playing winning basketball again, he helps raise the team’s ceiling as a unique force of nature.
I don’t want to accuse him of sandbagging the last few seasons, because injuries have undoubtedly taken a toll on him. However, he’s been living in a toxic stew in Memphis for some time. A lot of that is on him. Yet, there’s been clashes with coaches over playstyle/personality. Also, he’s watched the Grizzlies decide to dismantle the team he was leading. His close friends Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. were traded six months apart. The vibes couldn’t get any lower after the team tanked and drafted his presumed franchise successor in Cameron Boozer. This gives me hope that coming to Portland will breathe new life into Morant personally, along with a newfound dedication to his craft.
Morant is a major Nike athlete, with one of the best selling signature basketball shoes on the market. They have a vested interest in helping him be successful, so I’d expect the sports marketing pioneer to help with his image rehab. Being in Nike Town has its privileges.
Dame & Jrue’s Influence
Ja Morant is like Rocky Balboa after he was obliterated by Clubber Lang, losing the title, while his manager Mickey died in his arms. Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday are Apollo Creed coming in to lift him up to regain his “Eye of the Tiger.” It sounds corny, but a downtrodden star athlete with the odds stacked against him, getting mentored by two of the best to ever play the position — that leads us to Act III of the Hero’s Journey.
As much as I love the X’s and O’s of Blazers basketball, I’m equally excited to see how Dame and Jrue lead and guide this team on a daily basis. Their presence helps calm the waters when it seems like there’s so much turbulence surrounding the team. Morant is going to witness how a point guard is supposed to lead off the court and in the locker room.
There should be a decent level of confidence that Morant is going to come into training camp hellbent on redemption. He’s two seasons away from free agency. If he wants the opportunity to sign another large contract, he’ll have the veteran guidance to keep his eyes on the prize. Basketball hasn’t appeared fun for Morant for awhile. Going from a decaying situation to one focused on the playoffs should naturally boost his competitive fire.
Relentless Offensive Attack
If things click with chemistry, the Blazers are going to look like a gang of Cobra Kai coming at their opponents. The offense will Strike First. Strike Hard, and have No Mercy. The Blazers went from having one offensive engine with Deni Avdija, to three by adding Lillard and Morant. If new head coach Micah Nori and his staff can scheme successfully to involve all three without freezing out the others, Portland should easily have a Top 10 offense. Considering they finished this past season ranked 21st, there’s a pathway for them to take a significant leap.
Dig if you will a picture…Deni drives to the hoop, but misses the shot. Clingan rebounds and kicks it out to Ja. His natural tendency would be to take the next rim attack. Perhaps, it’s there for him. Or maybe he feigns a drive to suck the remaining defenders to the interior and passes out to a wide open Dame. That’s just shooting fish in a barrel.
Here’s another visual: Dame’s heat-checked into NBA JAM mode from downtown. Is the defense going to go back to putting two guys on him at half court? If so, their choice is to now play 3 on 4 with Ja and Deni as Dame’s passing outlets. Hmmm, I wonder how that would go for most defenses?
Since this is a glass-half-full article about the trade, we won’t discuss the Blazer defense with a Dame and Ja backcourt today.
Rebuild Value
Morant makes over $42 million next season and about $45 million the following year, which is the end of his deal. If Morant has a solid bounce-back season, he goes from being a negative asset to an intriguing one (hopefully) for some teams. GM Joe Cronin was able to parlay two players who had no expected future with Portland for a shot to gain a significant return on his investment.
If Morant can put forth a season resembling his peak years, he could net Portland a nice haul next offseason, as a team would have proof of concept and only one year remaining on his deal for an audition. If we reach this stage of the Ja Experience, Cronin’s trade win becomes an avalanche of good fortune after starting with Jerami Grant and Kris Murray. Perhaps, Morant plays well enough to raise the team’s ceiling, and he’s given an extension? We’ll save that rollercoaster of a thought for another time, but a 27/28-year-old, more mature and revitalized Morant next to Deni, DC, and some shooters? Color me intrigued.
Enjoy the Ride
We’re living in what I like to call the Affordable Deni and Dame Time-Line (ADDTL). It consists of the next two seasons only. That’s how much time Lillard, Holiday, and Morant all have left on their contracts. It’s also when Avdija and Clingan are up for new deals. Those two will take a sizable share of Portland’s salary cap in what could be a blockbuster summer in 2028. We’ll also see where Milwaukee’s and Orlando’s draft picks will end up, giving the Blazers several options for roster building.
That cap flexibility (before re-signing incumbent free agents) will be unprecedented for Portland in the new CBA era. It could also come with two great draft picks. To maximize the ADDTL until we get to the end of the 2027-2028 season, Cronin has to find a way to add the most talent by giving up the least amount of resources. There’s just too much value in the options Portland will have in two summers, so spending that capital, outside of chasing a Giannis-sized trade, doesn’t make sense. That’s what this Ja Morant trade is all about. Raising the talent level while keeping the core assets intact.
The trade is a gamble because at face value it appears to upset the order of things while creating more questions than answers. If Morant was Jayson Tatum-sized, we’d all feel better about it. Yet the reality is Portland is more talented after the trade. Now we place our hope in Micah Nori to functionally meld it. The Blazers are acting as if 2028 means a lot to them based on this summer’s moves. So until then, we can sit back and enjoy Dame’s final run, Ja’s shot at redemption, Deni’s continued rise among the elite, and role player development among the team’s youth.
Are you able to find a silver lining to the existing roster? Drop your thoughts below!
