Morant and Lillard: can the Blazers’ backcourt work?

After spending years as the face of the franchise in Memphis, Ja Morant is preparing for his first season with the Portland Trail Blazers. His arrival, however, comes with several questions, starting with his physical condition and his potential fit alongside Damian Lillard in the backcourt.

An anonymous NBA scout raised those concerns, expressing particular skepticism about the pairing.

He has a problematic knee, he doesn’t really work on his conditioning and I doubt he suddenly became an elite shooter. He’s small. He’s a bad defender, a small guard who doesn’t shoot well and isn’t physically in shape, next to another small guard who’s bad defensively but can shoot (Damian Lillard, en). It’ll probably be difficult

Anonymous NBA scout

Morant’s durability remains one of the biggest question marks surrounding him. In his career, he has never played more than 67 games in a single season, and over the last three seasons he has appeared in 9, 50 and 20 games, respectively.

Portland is expecting a greater level of involvement, but how the backcourt will be managed is also something to watch. With Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson already on the roster, the Blazers have several alternatives at the position.

Former NBA coach PJ Carlesimo has a different view, convinced that Lillard’s experience and basketball IQ could help Morant rediscover his best version.

Dame will do everything he can to get Ja back to being Ja. He’s such an intelligent player that he’ll find a way to make things work

PJ Carlesimo

Morant is coming off a season well below his best standards. The benchmark remains 2022-23, when he averaged 26.2 points, 8.1 assists and 5.9 rebounds. In Portland, he’ll have the opportunity to start over in a completely new environment: the question is whether it will be the right one to bring back the best version of Morant.