5 Biggest Storylines Going Into Trail Blazers Training Camp
5 Biggest Storylines Going Into Trail Blazers Training Camp
With media day set for Monday, here's what to keep an eye on.
That was a little less stressful of a summer than last year, wasn’t it?
The 2023 offseason was whiplash. Nothing happened in Trail Blazers world for 88 days between Damian Lillard’s July 1 trade request and the Sept. 27 trade that sent him to Milwaukee. After that, everything happened in less than a week: the messy fallout from his exit; the follow-up trade that sent Jrue Holiday to Boston; the arrival of four new players including a new starting center in Deandre Ayton; an eventful media day with plenty to ask general manager Joe Cronin about in the aftermath of the trade of the franchise’s all-time leading scorer; and a trip to Santa Barbara for training camp.
This summer was the opposite. Cronin made two big moves on draft night, trading for Deni Avdija and drafting Donovan Clingan, both of which were largely well-received, and then everyone got to go on vacation. We got two pieces of unequivocally good news this month, separate from anything on the court or with the roster: Portland is finally getting a WNBA expansion team, and Blazers games are now going to be broadcast for free on over-the-air network TV. There was no waiting around every day for three months for nothing to happen and sifting through interminable leaks out of Miami about leverage. I’ll take this summer 100 times out of 100.
Media day tomorrow should be relatively uneventful. The roster is largely the same, with only Avdija and Clingan as new players expected to play major roles. Everyone knows what the goal of this season is (developing young players on the way to another high lottery pick). Camp will stay local this year, a change from the last two years, when they relocated to Southern California for a week.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t compelling things to follow over the next three weeks leading up to the start of the regular season. Here are the five biggest things to keep an eye on between now and the Blazers’ season opener against Golden State on Oct. 23.
(As usual, training camp coverage is going to be for paid subscribers only, so now is as good a time as any to make the jump.)
How will the backcourt rotation shake out, and how much progress has Scoot Henderson made?
If I had to guess, just based on positional fit, the Blazers’ starting backcourt this season will be Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe, with Scoot Henderson coming off the bench. As we covered in a mailbag the other day, Henderson has a lot to prove in his second season.
All of the reports about Henderson’s performance at some of the summer pickup games in California don’t mean much compared to how he looks once the games actually start. The Blazers’ first preseason game in Seattle next Friday will be against the same team—the Clippers—that Henderson made his proper NBA debut against a year ago. It’s a very different version of the Clippers: Paul George and Russell Westbrook are gone, and Kawhi Leonard may or may not be playing. But it will still be a worthwhile measuring stick. Henderson’s debut was about as humbling as welcome-to-the-league moment as any high lottery pick could have, and was the precursor to a much more up-and-down rookie season than many anticipated.
Henderson is a confident guy, and we all know the work ethic is there. He’s going to say all the right things on Monday about learning from his tough rookie season, and I know that people in the organization are encouraged by how he played the final six weeks of the season. But let’s see what it actually looks like.
Donovan Clingan’s learning curve
The Blazers’ No. 7 overall pick looked like an NBA-ready defender at Summer League. The things Clingan was good at in college (protecting the rim, rebounding and setting hard screens) look like they’re going to translate easily to the next level.
But I don’t know how much he’s going to play early on, for a few reasons.
There’s a lot of competition at the center position—Ayton is pretty set as the starter, a newly healthy Robert Williams III will undoubtedly play a lot as the organization looks to rebuild his value, and Duop Reath is still in the mix.
Conditioning is also going to be a major adjustment for Clingan. He averaged just 22.5 minutes per game last year at UConn in a college basketball season half as long as the NBA’s 82-game season. It’s tough for anyone his size to make that jump seamlessly. Is he going to be able to hang with the Jokic’s, Embiids and Wembanyamas of the NBA as a rookie, just from a physicality standpoint? Probably not.
It’s going to take time for Clingan to build up to that. My sense is the Blazers realize that and are going to use most of this year to get his body adjusted to the NBA. I’d be shocked if he plays more than 15-20 minutes per game this season. But he will get opportunities, especially in preseason, and it will be interesting to see how he looks.
Deni Avdija’s fit
Portland’s non-Clingan addition this summer checked all the boxes of positional fit, contract and readiness to contribute right away, coming off a career season in Washington. Avdija had his best shooting season ever last year—if that carries over, he could be, legitimately, the best starting small forward the Blazers have had since Nicolas Batum. It should be a plug-and-play situation with him.
Does one of the young forwards set himself apart?
Sharpe, Avdija and Jerami Grant are the most likely starters at the 2-3-4 to open the season, but the Blazers have several young players behind them who will be fighting for minutes: Toumani Camara, Kris Murray, Rayan Rupert and Jabari Walker.
As of now, Camara is the best bet to get consistent minutes, having won a starting role for a lot of last season. Walker has a defined role and skill set (rebounding energy big), which is helpful in earning playing time. Murray and Rupert are probably going to spend a lot of time with the Rip City Remix this year. Rupert is further away from being NBA-ready than Murray, whose ability to contribute will hinge on whether his shot comes around. The Blazers love what Murray does in almost every other aspect of the game, but the shooting will be what it hinges on.
How that hierarchy plays out will be worth following in camp.
Can Devonte’ Graham challenge Dalano Banton for the 15th roster spot?
The only real wiggle room the Blazers have on their roster is with the 15th spot. Banton, who played well after coming over from Boston at the trade deadline last year, has a contract that’s only guaranteed for $217,533 out of his $2.2 million salary if he’s waived before the start of the season and $1.1 million between opening night and Jan. 10. His competition is six-year veteran guard Devonte’ Graham, who spent last season with the Spurs after stints in Charlotte and New Orleans.
Graham, on a non-guaranteed camp deal, could provide real competition for Banton to get that spot. It’s also possible that both get cut, if the Blazers want to preserve roster flexibility for a future two-for-one trade. Banton has the edge over Graham right now as the incumbent, but it definitely looks like it’s going to be an open competition.
The presumed starting lineup of Ant, Sharpe, Deni, Grant, and Ayton leaves a bench unit comprised entirely of guys who are, at best, below average shooters. Considering how much the Blazers are invested in developing Scoot, does that make sense? I agree that this is the obvious starting lineup, but it seems like it is setting up Scoot to be less successful playing with a bench unit that can't spread the floor for him. Are you comfortable that Chauncey can find a rotation with Scoot off the bench that still maximizes his development?