The Trail Blazers expect Damian Lillard to be back next season, but his return raises questions about the direction of Portland’s backcourt moving forward, Jake Fischer writes for the Stein Line (subscriber link).
The Blazers have Jrue Holiday under contract for at least one more season – he holds a $37.2MM player option for 2027/28 – as well as former No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, who had a torrid start to the first-round series against the Spurs before going cold in the final two games.
The team believes that Lillard and Holiday can function well together in the backcourt, according to Fischer, but with a long-term decision still to be made on Henderson, it’s possible the Blazers could look to open up minutes for the young guard, who averaged 15.0 points per game in his first career playoff series, by moving Holiday in a trade.
The veteran guard and two-time NBA champion said he’d prefer for that not to happen.
“I don’t like being traded and moved,” Holiday said. “I like being a part of something and building.”
We have more from Fischer’s latest newsletter:
- While rumors have circulated about Anthony Davis‘ future with the Wizards, including reports of potential interest from Portland, Fischer notes that the expectation remains that Washington will come to terms on a lucrative long-term extension for star point guard Trae Young. Young played just five games for the Wizards after being traded from the Hawks, averaging 15.2 points and 6.2 assists in 20.8 minutes per game.
- After a successful season followed by a devastating Game 6 blowout at the hands of the Knicks, the Hawks are not expected to go star-hunting this summer, despite having a handful of very good trade assets. Instead, the team is expected to focus on locking in deals for CJ McCollum, Jonathan Kuminga, and head coach Quin Snyder, who has one more year on his contract, Fischer reports. He adds that Bryson Graham, the vice president of basketball operations, remains in play for the Bulls’ head of basketball operations job.
- The Rockets came to terms with not being a true championship contender when they lost Fred VanVleet to an ACL tear before the season, but a first-round loss to the Lakers and chemistry questions surrounding Kevin Durant could lead to an “all options on the table” summer outlook, Fischer writes, especially given the possibility that players like Kawhi Leonard, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Donovan Mitchell hit the trade block. Houston’s front office will now take stock of the team’s current ceiling and decide from there whether the roster needs margin tweaks or more substantial changes. Fischer adds that Amen Thompson is expected to be in the mix for a max contract extension after averaging 19.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and 2.0 steals per game in his first playoff run, a year after being voted onto the All-Defensive first team.
Scoot Henderson back home to Atl in a sign&trade sending 3J ‘back home’ to Portland could be smooth for both teams. I wouldn’t love to lose McCollum after he was so great for us this season but I’d def love bringing Scoot back to the A, especially if we end up with a top4 pick.
Scoot Dyson Kuminga yeah no shooting in the A anymore
Dice is always gonna be a minus shooter but he’s so great in every other part of the game & is often the best player on the court for long stretches. Scoot & Kuminga are both very capable shooters. They both shoot around 35% from trey. Scoot shot near 50% from trey in the playoffs. JK is a great midrange shooter. Nickeil, Jalen, Buddy, Onyeka, Kispert, Zacch all great shooters still under contract.
I think you need a PG who can get you 20-25 to offset whatever offensive woes Dyson has. Too many times against Knicks he was dared to shoot and he missed. You don’t need Scoot with a guy like Flemings or Brown available for them. Cheaper deal and contract. Bigger problem is will they keep Zacch? He wasn’t even playable and that’s due to the coach. I saw your post about May so I know you agree that Snyder needs to be gone. May wouldn’t be a bad choice but I think he has no intentions to leave Ann Arbor for a meddling team that isn’t even top 3 in the East if healthy. It has to be the perfect job for him in order to leave Michigan. Maybe if Knicks falter, that would be the job he would love to take a chance at. But he’s also a small town kid so idk.
I love Mikel Brown Jr & Kingston Flemings as prospects. Scoot was a better prospect than them both. He was fairly dominant in the playoffs just now until Dylan Harper stole his soul a bit down the stretch of gm3. He’s not as shiny & new as the youngsters from this class but his ceiling is still just as high if not higher. Also, crucially, he already has 3yrs of pro ball under his belt & is more ready to help us win now. And anyway we can very easily trade for a young pg like Scoot (or Cason Wallace) & still draft a guard with our top10 pick. And Scoot still has 2yrs left on his rookie deal so he’s fairly cheap himself.
As far as the Hawks being a meddling team in the East lol I’m guessing you didn’t see how dominant we just were in the 2nd half of the season with a healthy team. We were definitely 1 of the best teams in the East after CJ was inserted into the starting lineup. This is while also having 1 of the youngest cores in the East with our entire young core locked up for yrs (once we get JK signed). Dusty May is def gonna be an NBA coach at some point in the near future. It’s sorta hard to imagine him getting a more attractive opportunity tbh
35% is the league average, that includes bigs. So 3/5 below that is no spacing in a 3 pt shooting league.
I can’t see them trading Scoot just because an old injured Lillard will be there. Who knows what version of his former self hell be and he’s not going to be around for long. Scoot isn’t being moved unless the Hawks are coming up off of that number 1 pick and more. No way is anyone trading assets for CJ when he’s a free agent.
If the Bulls are really going to hire Lloyd the Wolves advancing isn’t going to help with preparing for the draft and FA the farther it goes. The Bulls need somebody in here soon because there are a bunch of player and draft decisions that need to made here and soon. Starting late will not help unless they hire somebody and he can hire at least a GM to start laying the groundwork. As usual Bulls owners aren’t really thinking unless for some absurd reason the Wolves let him go early and I can’t imagine why they would. Maybe they should just move on with other people who can be on the job sooner. Either way Bulls fans are behind the 8 Ball again. Atta Boys!
Hawks aren’t going to rush anything. That’s how you become a desperate team like Houston, Miami, Portland, Cleveland, etc.
Miami and cleveland won rings. Portland is right where the hawks are except they have dame coming back, could use scoot as trade bait themselves. Houston with fvv and healthy kd would have been a problem.
Miami and Cleveland haven’t won a championship recently. They have totally different teams. My point is desperate starhunting doesn’t work
How did cleveland exemplify desperation?
Trading for James Harden
Really like what the Hawks have done with their team (except for adding Kuminga)
Could perhaps use backup big and backup point guard…one of the more fun teams to watch
I like what the Hawks have done so far, but there will have to be tweaks to this team to go farther in the playoffs. We are a little small on the frontline and that haunts us against physical teams and everyone gets physical in the playoffs. Hartenstein would be a good start in the offseason.