30 teams, 30 days: Portland Trailblazers | 2026 Season Preview

Welcome to my 30 teams in 30 days series, the most comprehensive and informative previews for every team in the NBA. Inside these posts, you’ll get up to speed with every team’s offseason additions and their roster hierarchies, learn whether they’ve addressed their biggest areas of need, ponder over 5 questions that will define their season and then decide whether you agree with my offseason grades and record predictions.

Notable Additions: Jrue Holiday, Yang Hansen, Damian Lillard, Blake Wesley

Notable Subtractions: Anfernee Simons, DeAndre Ayton

Depth Chart:

PG: Scoot Henderson / Jrue Holiday / Damian Lillard

SG: Shaedon Sharpe / Blake Wesley / Caleb Love / Rayan Rupert

SF: Toumani Camara / Matisse Thybulle / Kris Murray / Sidy Cissoko

PF: Deni Avdija / Jerami Grant/ Duop Reath

C: Donovan Clingan / Yang Hansen / Robert Williams

Roster Hierarchy:

Franchise: N/A

Core: Shaedon Sharpe, Donovan Clingan, Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara

Key Rotation: Scoot Henderson, Jrue Holiday, Yang Hansen, Jerami Grant, Matisse Thybulle

Rotation:, Robert Williams, Blake Wesley, Duop Reath

Development: Caleb Love, Sidy Cissoko, Rayan Rupert, Kris Murray

Cryo Chamber: Damian Lillard

Offseason Overview:

When a franchise spends a decade crafting their entire ethos around their homegrown star, his departure is going to send his former organization into an identity crisis. POR has searched aimlessly for a foundational concept to build their roster around in Dame’s absence, attempting to replicate the Dame Time magic with his disciple Anfernee Simons, drafting Scoot Henderson #2 overall and “buying low” on DeAndre Ayton. For most teams, their transformative force arrives in the top of the draft, but for the Blazers, it may have been the player who was include as a throw-in for salary matching in the Dame trade, Toumani Camara, the 52nd pick.

I’m not insinuating Toumani is a franchise cornerstone, BUT I do believe he is a perfect embodiment of the defensive culture shift that has gifted POR a path forward. He served as a proof of concept for the Blazers’ subsequent decisions, drafting Clingan in 2024, acquiring Deni before the 2025 season and investing in Yang in this past draft. Their +3.2 relative defensive rating from January 1st on (conveniently the point where Ayton stopped suiting up), would rank as their 9th best defense in franchise history and their best mark since 1999. This is a different approach to Blazers basketball than what we’ve seen from POR in decades, as they tinker their way to building the perfect defensive infrastructure around a superstar, something they were never able to construct for Damian Lillard.

Pre-Draft Areas of Need:

🥇 Offensive Versatility: 25th HC offense due to ranking Bottom 3 in Post-Up, Cuts and Off-Ball Screen PPP

🥈 Defensive Playmaking : 19th in Deflections

🥉 Transition Conversion: 5th in Transition Frequency, 29th in PPP

4️⃣ Decision Making: 3rd in Drives/g yet they generated just 23.8 APG (27th) and the worst AST/TO ratio in the league (1.5)

Jrue and Yang replacing Simons’ and Ayton’s minutes will boost POR’s versatility and playmaking on both ends, though it will take time for this young team to see efficiency gains from a more distributed style of play.

Season Outlook:

1. How much does Anfernee’s departure unlock Scoot & Shaedon individually and as a duo?

Simons is among the league’s best self-creators and shooters, but his immense scoring gravity didn’t exactly make things materially easier for his backcourt partners. Both Shaedon and Scoot saw sizable volume increases in their production cross the board with Simons off the court vs off, and Scoot was a staggering +7.7 rTS% better efficiency-wise. The on-court pairing numbers reflect that impact, as the “best” (relative since POR has been so bad these past 2 years) combo of these 3 guards featured Scoot & Shaedon together without Anfernee.

It’s tough trying to split duties among 3 guys, which is why this move should introduce a much more natural hierarchy in POR’s backcourt. The ball will rightfully be back in Scoot’s hands as POR’s leading driver and strongest playmaker, which pairs Shaedon with a more conducive drive and kick ballhandler as opposed to the more methodical Simons. The surrounding infrastructure may not be strong enough for the offense to see a jump, but the defensive gains from playing a true wing at the 3 more often and the increase in rim attempts will begin to pay dividends soon into the season. You can hear even more thoughts on my expectation for Shaedon in the youtube video below!

2. Can Clingan scale his minutes load up?

In the past 3 seasons, Clingan’s never played more than 50% of his team’s minutes, despite appearing in over 80% of their possible games. His teams have been so cautious with his minutes load because he’s carrying 280+ lbs on a frame that’s suffered multiple lower-body injuries, but he’s so incredibly impactful that he NEEDS to play more minutes. Opponents shot -12.8% WORSE at the rim when he contested (94th%), POR was +4.8 points better per 100 with him on the floor vs off and he was one of just 6 rookies to ever record a block percentage greater than 7% and an assist percentage above 8%.

From Jan 1st through the end of the season, the Blazers went from the league’s 4th worst defense (-5.2 rDRTG) to the league’s 7th best (+3.2) rDRTG, in large part because Clingan began to replace Ayton’s minutes. His passing and screening combined with the generational rim protection resulted in POR outperforming the spread by +4.7 the highest differential in the closing stretch of the season. Providing it doesn’t jeopardize his health, we need to see Clingan on the floor for at least 25 minutes a night.

3. How much should POR weight Deni’s end of season leap?

Deni Advija closed the season on a 3-week stretch where he averaged nearly 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Any end of season sample has to come with a #MickeyMarch caveat, since opposing teams tend to take their foot off the gas as the year comes to a close, but there are signals that indicate Deni may be able to sustain at least a portion of his offensive explosion.

There are a number of areas where Deni has improved rapidly since being drafted, from his 3-point percentage to his free-throw rate. He began his career shooting lower than 32% from 3 in 3 straight seasons, then quietly improved in 2024 to 37% and then added volume and remained efficient in 2025. Advija was extremely contact-adverse as a rookie, averaging just 1.7 FTA/100 (13th%), a number that steadily creeped up every year until it ballooned to 8.4 FTA/100 (99th%).

This trend of steadily increasing volume over the years is consistent with his self-creation ability, as Deni has upped his Isolation/PNR Ball-Handler/Post-Up scoring volume every season. Generally, he’s earned more on-ball equity every season because each year he’s proved he can take on more responsibility. Portland would be wise to continue to feed him reps to see his limits as a creator, as I think he can max out as a Khris Middleton-esque secondary wing on a contender.

4. How do Yang and Clingan diversify this offense??

Portland ran a pick and roll on 18% of their offensive possessions, the 4th highest rate in the league. Yang and Clingan are awesome screeners whose their biggest strength offensively may be the passing ability at their size. Uconn deployed Clingan as a hub out of their split and delay actions regularly and Yang is exceedingly comfortable and incredibly skilled as a facilitator at the top of the key.

POR traded their 2 most efficient half-court creators this year so they need to lean into the offensive edge that teams get from bigs with passing gifts, similar to how Sacramento had the best offense in the league by playing through Sabonis almost exclusively. The rotation consistency of having 2 plus passers at the 5 for this roster cannot be understated, especially since I believe Yang has legitimate superstar level playmaking potential as a 5.

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5. Can we please end the Jerami Grant arc in Portland?

Extending Jerami Grant for 5-years, $190 million just for Damian lillard to request a trade 24 hours later is still haunting the Blazers 2 years later, as they now owe a combined $300M over the next 3 years to Grant and Jrue. While you can make an argument that Jrue adds value, Jerami makes even less sense on the roster than he did a year ago, especially if POR tries to force him as a starter. They’ve got to rehabilitate his value since he had a career-low 38 2P%, so if they can get him to buy in on a bench role and then flip him, maybe they won’t have to attach assets to get off his contract.

Record Prediction

Total Wins Over/Under: 34.5 via BetMGM

Floor: 36–46 (+0 wins)

One of my biggest beliefs is that elite defensive units have a high floor, and I view this Blazers roster as a T10 defense.

Ceiling: 39–43 (+3 wins)

One of my other biggest beliefs is that teams that are this tilted defensively will have their ceiling limited by the offensive tradeoffs, and I view this Blazers roster as maybe the most fun bottom 10 offense to watch in the league.

Let me know if you agree with my predictions! What are your expectations for the Blazers this season?

Overall Grade: B+

Up Next: Toronto Raptors