Portland Trail Blazers Bet Big on Ja Morant as the Arena Clock Ticks

The Portland Trail Blazers spent last season doing something they had not done since 2021 — playing a playoff game — and they have spent this summer making sure nobody can describe the roster in a single sentence. Portland finished 42-40, beat Phoenix in the play-in to climb to the seven seed, then got handled by San Antonio in five. That is a respectable outcome for a team that lost its head coach in October and its best guard before the season started. What the front office did with that respectability is the interesting part, because Portland answered a playoff appearance by trading for a two-time All-Star point guard it arguably did not need, while the far bigger question — where this franchise plays its home games a decade from now — got pushed into a city council work session scheduled for today.

The Ja Morant Trade and What It Actually Cost

At the end of June, Portland acquired Ja Morant from Memphis for Jerami Grant, Kris Murray and cash. ESPN's Shams Charania broke it on June 29; the league office and NBA.com logged it a day later. Morant has two years and roughly $87 million left on his contract and a career line of 22.4 points and 7.4 assists, which is the version of him Portland is buying. The version Memphis sold is the one who has appeared in 79 games over three seasons and shot 41.0% from the floor and 23.5% from three across 20 games last year, with the gap explained by suspensions, a shoulder, an elbow and a long stretch of self-inflicted noise.

Grant was Portland's most reliable half-court scorer, at 18.6 points a night over 57 games. Murray was a rotation forward on a rookie deal. Neither is irreplaceable. But this was a wing-for-guard trade by a team that already had guards, and that is the sentence the whole season hinges on. It is also the clearest signal yet of how new owner Tom Dundon intends to operate: buy the name, absorb the risk, sort out the fit later.

Robert Williams III Got Paid, and Now Portland Has Four Centers

The other June 30 headline was cleaner. Robert Williams III signed a three-year, $44 million extension that keeps him in Portland through 2028-29, a deal that would have looked reckless three years ago and looks reasonable now. Williams played 59 games last season after averaging roughly 20 a year over the prior three, and he produced 6.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 17 minutes while shooting north of 70%. Availability was always the only question. He answered it once.

The complication is who else is standing in that part of the floor. Donovan Clingan is the long-term starter. Yang Hansen is entering year two with real momentum. Then Portland added Branden Carlson on a one-year deal in early July, which is a fine depth signing in isolation and a strange one on a roster with three centers already under contract. Portland also lost Matisse Thybulle, who signed with the Lakers on July 20 after shooting 39.8% from three last season — the exact skill a team full of non-shooting bigs and ball-dominant guards needs on the floor. Late in the month, Portland gave John Tonje, the former Wisconsin scorer, a two-way contract. That is the sum total of the outside additions to the wing rotation this summer.

Scoot Henderson Has an October 19 Problem

Scoot Henderson can sign a rookie-scale extension until October 19. If he does not, he plays out a $13.6 million season and hits restricted free agency next summer. His 2025-26 was a hamstring injury and 30 games of 14.2 points, 3.7 assists and 35.2% from three, followed by a genuinely good first-round series — 15.0 points a game on 47.5% shooting, including a 31-point night in the Game 2 win. That is a player worth arguing about.

The problem is arithmetic. Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Ja Morant and Henderson are four point guards, and Shaedon Sharpe needs the ball too. Bleacher Report's Eric Pincus has predicted no extension gets done. Portland's options are to pay Henderson without knowing what his role is, trade him while the playoff tape is fresh, or let the season answer it and risk a restricted free agency it may not want to fund. There is no comfortable third door.

Micah Nori Walks Into a Very Full Room

Portland hired Micah Nori away from Minnesota in late June, ending an interim year under Tiago Splitter that began when Chauncey Billups was placed on leave in October following his arrest in a federal gambling case. Nori is a well-regarded offensive mind, and he inherits a defense that should be legitimately good — Clingan and Toumani Camara are both real deterrents — paired with a backcourt that will give a lot of it back. Historically, Lillard's most productive partnerships have come with 6-foot-3 guards, and defense was always the price. Morant does not fix that.

Lillard himself is the variable nobody can schedule around. He signed a three-year, $42 million deal with a no-trade clause, tore his left Achilles in the 2025 playoffs, missed all of last season, and has said he expects to be back for 2026-27. He still won the Three-Point Contest at All-Star Weekend while rehabbing, which is a very Damian Lillard way to spend a lost year. He turns 36 this season. Deni Avdija, meanwhile, made his first All-Star team and is quietly the most straightforwardly excellent player on the roster.

The Moda Center Fight Is the Blazers' Bigger Story

Everything above is basketball. This part is the franchise. Portland City Council President Jamie Dunphy invited Trail Blazers leadership to a public work session today, July 30 — no public testimony, so the council and the team can actually talk to each other. The framework on the table is $573 million in public money: up to $365 million from the state, $120 million from the city and $88 million from Multnomah County.

The tone is not warm. In his letter to team president of business operations Dewayne Hankins, Dunphy said the city has been submitting requests for specific information since April and has received nothing back since then. The calendar from here is tight: public testimony on the draft term sheet August 5-6, a council vote August 12, and a December-into-January deadline to lock down state funding and a complete agreement. OPB spent a segment on July 28 with reporters Mike Vorkunov and Yaron Weitzman discussing which cities would want this team if it ever came available. That conversation is happening out loud now, which is its own kind of answer.

What Is Left Before Camp

The roster is not finished. Portland has open standard spots and an owner who has made clear he would rather not pay luxury tax — the 2026-27 salary cap is set at $164.961 million with the first apron at $209.015 million. The most useful remaining addition would be a wing who can shoot, which is precisely what walked out the door to Los Angeles.

The next real dates are close. The NBA still expects to release the 2026-27 schedule in mid-August, according to a league spokesperson via The Athletic, which will finally give this season a shape. Training camps open in late September. Portland's preseason includes a trip to Golden 1 Center on October 13 to face Sacramento. Between now and then, the Trail Blazers have to decide what Scoot Henderson is worth, find a shooter, hope Lillard's Achilles cooperates, and figure out how Nori divides fourth quarters among four guards who all believe they should be closing. That is a lot of unresolved business for a team that just made the playoffs. It is still the simpler of the two problems facing this organization.