Coach Micah Nori reconsiders Portland’s backcourt strategy, prioritizing defensive balance over star power as he weighs starting Jrue Holiday to stabilize the Blazers’ undersized, guard-heavy rotation.
Micah Nori spent the summer embracing the Portland Trail Blazers' crowded guard room. Now he's admitting the most obvious pairing may be the one that makes the least sense.
Nori has been open about Portland playing smaller since taking over as head coach, even welcoming the chance to create confusion with lineups featuring several of the team's guards.
With Damian Lillard, Ja Morant, Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe on the roster, unconventional combinations were always going to be part of the equation.
The question is whether Lillard and Morant should be the combination Portland starts with every night.
The Athletic's Jason Quick reported Friday that Nori believes starting the two undersized guards together "doesn't make sense," with Holiday alongside one of them representing the more analytically sound option because of his size and defensive ability.
That's a much narrower view than the one Nori presented in July.
Quick reported then that Nori "welcomes" the challenge of Portland's crowded guard room and believed smaller lineups could "create confusion" for opposing teams.
The possibilities seemed wide open … including combinations featuring three or even four guards.
Nori still believes in that flexibility.
"The more talent you can get, the way we can put these guys into role. It's all about decision makers," Nori said this week. "The league is going, in my opinion, a lot smaller now, positionless and all that type of thing."
There's a difference between trying it and building around it.
Holiday gives Portland more size and someone better equipped to take the tougher defensive assignment next to either Lillard or Morant.
That becomes a much bigger issue when the pairing is opening games together every night instead of showing up for shorter stretches.
Nori still wants to see it for himself.
He told Quick that he is leaning toward starting Lillard and Morant in Portland's preseason opener against Golden State, although nothing has been finalized.
"It's not set in stone, but probably, because I'm leaning toward wanting to see what it looks like," Nori said.
That may be the most telling part of all of this.
Nori hasn't abandoned the smaller-lineup ideas he talked about throughout the summer. He just seems to be separating what could work as a changeup from what Portland should actually build around every night.
Nori spent the summer talking about all the different ways Portland could use its guards. Now he has to figure out which ones actually make sense.
