{"id":936255,"date":"2026-10-22T00:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936255\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T00:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:02:11","slug":"ja-morants-role-in-blazers-lineup-reportedly-revealed-for-debut-with-damian-lillard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936255\/","title":{"rendered":"Ja Morant’s Role in Blazers’ Lineup Reportedly Revealed For Debut With Damian Lillard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ja Morant will start next to Damian Lillard in the Portland Trail Blazers’ backcourt to open the 2026-27 season, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guards Jrue Holiday and Scoot Henderson are set to come off the bench for Portland assuming Toumani Camara, Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan will occupy the team’s remaining three starting spots.<\/p>\n

The Trail Blazers acquired Morant in exchange for forwards Jerami Grant and Kris Murray in a trade<\/a> with the Memphis Grizzlies on June 29.<\/p>\n

There was some uncertainty surrounding Portland’s starting backcourt heading into training camp, as Holiday started 51 games last season while Lillard was sidelined due to his recovery from a torn Achilles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Henderson only made 30 regular-season appearances, but thrived as a starter in the Trail Blazers’ first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. The No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft averaged 15.0 points per game on 47.5\/46.4\/75.0 shooting splits in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Morant started in 325 of his 327 games played throughout his seven-year tenure in Memphis.<\/p>\n

The two-time All-Star was willing to accept a bench role following the change of scenery, though.<\/p>\n

“I think winning is the most important thing for me,” Morant told reporters<\/a> on Sept. 28. “So whatever role I have to play to get that done, I don’t think anybody would be mad after a win. As a starter, if I’m starting, if I’m not, it’s the same thing. It’s day one right now, I feel like that’s coach’s questions, but for me I have no problem with either.”<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old quickly blossomed into one of the league’s top young point guards after the Grizzlies selected him with the No. 2 choice in the 2019 draft, but his time with the organization didn’t end on a high note.<\/p>\n

Morant recorded just 19.5 points per game last season, representing his lowest average since his 2020-21 campaign. He also shot a career-low 41.0 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from behind the arc.<\/p>\n

An elbow injury<\/a> limited him to 20 appearances.<\/p>\n

It’s worth noting that Morant started to look like his former self in the preseason with the Trail Blazers, averaging 11.5 points, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals in 20.8 minutes per game. He connected on 56.7 percent of his field goals as well.<\/p>\n

Portland will open the regular season against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night. Tip off is at 10 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ja Morant will start next to Damian Lillard in the Portland Trail Blazers’ backcourt to open the 2026-27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-936255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}