Portland must decide if Deni Avdija is a true championship centerpiece or a costly secondary piece as rising talents and looming extensions force a high-stakes roster crossroads.
The Portland Trail Blazers’ upcoming season will dictate the longer-term strategy and vision of the team, and notably who this roster will be built around as the headliner.
Last season, it was all about Deni Avdija, who was far and away the team’s best player and played at a star level. But moving forward, that may not be the case forever.
Donovan Clingan continues to emerge as a potential cornerstone piece. Ja Morant has a chance to re-emerge as a face-of-the-franchise-caliber player this season. Shorter term, Damian Lillard has a chance to get back to being one of the best shooters and most prolific scorers in the entire NBA. Scoot Henderson could take a leap and be the team’s guard of the future. There are a lot of scenarios that could play out in which Avdija isn’t necessarily the building block piece.
Now, that’s not to say that Portland should be actively looking for somebody else to be that player. It could certainly be Avdija. He could absolutely take another step this season, be All-NBA-caliber and become the true face of the franchise long term. But he’ll also need a large extension in the near future, and if he’s playing at that kind of level, that means a huge financial commitment.
And so, the Blazers would love for this to be a great season and another step forward, potentially even being in the conversation to host a first-round playoff series as a best-case scenario. But with a good season and emerging players breaking out come larger contracts and tougher decisions.
This is a season in which Portland, again, wants to take a step forward, but it may also be a season that defines who the cornerstone pieces they’ll build around in the years beyond will be.
So while Avdija is the cornerstone piece today, at some point Portland is going to have to look in the mirror and determine if he’s good enough to be the No. 1 option on a championship team. No matter how much depth and support you put around any one player, at some point, to win a title, with how talented the top end of the league is at this juncture, your No. 1 guy has to be a superstar-caliber player.
There hasn’t been a champion in the last decade that didn’t have a bona fide top-five or top-10 player in the league at the helm. And so, if the Blazers think Avdija can be that guy after this season based on what he shows, that’s a good sign. But if not, the question then becomes whether they can afford him financially to be the No. 2, and then how do they go find that No. 1 option?
