Micah Nori must balance five starting-caliber guards by ditching traditional lineups. From Houston’s small-ball experiment to OKC’s triple-threat backcourt, history proves skill can defy conventional positional logic.
It's a reality that's simply too obvious to ignore ... the Portland Trail Blazers have too many guards.
After trading Kris Murray and Jerami Grant for Ja Morant, first-year head coach Micah Nori now has five starting-level guards to deploy, and Portland doesn't appear likely to consolidate any of them in a corresponding move.
Instead, the Blazers may embrace lineups featuring more than just two guards, which has resulted in varying levels of success throughout recent history.
The Houston Rockets took the concept to its absolute extreme during the 2019-20 season.
Mike D'Antoni traded away Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks at the deadline, committed to P.J. Tucker as his full-time center and effectively bet an entire season on the idea that skill could outweigh size.
On most nights, Houston was giving up inches at multiple positions ... but it didn't matter.
The Rockets won 44 games in the pandemic-shortened campaign and entered the postseason believing that having Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Eric Gordon attacking defenses was more valuable than matching opponents physically.
Houston would advance to the Western Conference Semifinals before falling to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in the bubble.
That same season, Oklahoma City faced a different version of the same problem.
Chris Paul needed the basketball in his hands. Dennis Schroder did, too. So did a rapidly ascending Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Rather than staggering their minutes or sacrificing one player's role for another, Billy Donovan embraced playing all three together.
The result was one of the biggest surprises in the NBA that season.
After being projected by many to enter a rebuild following the Paul George and Russell Westbrook trades, the Thunder won 44 games and pushed those same Rockets to seven games in the first round of the playoffs — falling by just two points in the closing act.
Portland's situation is admittedly ... more extreme.
Morant isn't coming off the floor. Neither is Damian Lillard.
Jrue Holiday remains one of the league's best perimeter defenders, while Shaedon Sharpe may possess the most athleticism of anyone on the roster not named Morant.
Then there's Scoot Henderson, the former third-overall pick who is still just scratching the surface of his potential.
And that's just the guard room.
We haven't even accounted for Deni Avdija, who was only able to make his All-Star leap in Portland because — unlike the Washington Wizards — the Blazers put the ball in his hands.
At some point, conventional lineup construction stops making sense.
Maybe that's okay.
The Trail Blazers may have too many guards for a traditional rotation to work.
History suggests that doesn't necessarily mean they have a problem ... but Nori is going to have to get creative.
