5 Blazers With Questionable Roles Going Into the Season

As the Portland Trail Blazers roster for 2026-2027 begins to take shape, there’s a handful of players whose role for the upcoming season has some question marks.

With Damian Lillard and Ja Morant joining the fray, plus the extended absence of Shaedon Sharpe, the guard position remains murky overall as far as a plan.

Then there’s the big men where Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams III and Yang Hansen all currently stand.

Here’s a look at five players whose role is still to be determined.

Micah Potter

The Blazers claimed Potter off waivers from the Indiana Pacers back in July, a 6-foot-9 forward (he's listed as a center) who’s spent five years in the NBA. Potter has played 111 career games and averages 6.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and one assist per game.

Potter certainly got most of his use last season in Indiana when he averaged 19.3 minutes a game and had a career high with 3.6 3-pointers attempted per game. He made the deep ball at a 42.3 percent clip.

That last part is certainly the reason why Potter is coming over to Rip City as the Blazers have been dreadful from beyond the arc over the past few years.

What comes into question is what first-year head coach Micah Nori wants to do with his bench unit having a plethora of guards.

There’s really only three other forwards on the roster right now in Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara and Jeremy Sochan, the latter of which is on a training-camp deal.

Potter could be a literal bigger option as a potential bench shooter, or if Nori plans on going with more small-ball lineups, Potter’s time might be limited.

Branden Carlson

Carlson signed a 1-year deal with the Blazers back in July and is listed as a 7-foot center.

That right there is the question mark as Carlson joins a team with two established centers in Clingan and Williams, along with 2025 first-round pick Yang Hansen.

Carlson spent his first two years in the NBA with Oklahoma City where he played in 42 games last year, starting in four of them. He averaged 5.8 points and 2.4 rebounds per game while shooting 52.7 percent from the floor.

Carlson might just be a deep bench addition to help if one of the big men go down in front of him, but maybe he could be here to leap frog Hansen and be the third option instead.

Yang Hansen

Speaking of Hansen, his role for the upcoming season is in a strange spot as well after the resigning of Williams.

Hansen, as noted the Blazers first-round pick in 2025, averaged 2.2 points and 1.5 rebounds in 43 games played last season. Not exactly what you expect from a draft pick made as high as him.

The word about Hansen has constantly been that he could be the Chinese Nikola Jokic, and his play with China this summer has provided the same kind of exciting chatter coming into the fall.

However, he looked largely ineffective last season when he did get his chances. And with Williams back to health and Clingan making a big step last season, Hansen might be fighting for playing time again.

Vit Krejci

Brought over at the trade deadline last season, Krejci was supposed to be a potential answer at helping the Blazers terrible 3-point shooting.

Instead, Krejci played just 19 games and shot 30.3 percent from deep after averaging 41.9 percent in four seasons for Atlanta.

Not the best first impression.

Now with Lillard back and Morant added, the guard room got even deeper. Does Krejci take time away from Holiday, Henderson or even Sidy Cissoko?

And with Potter added, do the Blazers even need to keep a guy like Krejci who is a 3-point specialist? We’ll find out soon enough.

Sidy Cissoko

One of the best stories of the 2025-2026 Portland season was the play of Cissoko who turned his two-way contract into a 2-year deal. He averaged a career high 5.1 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game in 75 games played with 25 starts.

While his efforts were notable and much appreciated by Blazers fans, no one is going to be more affected by the return of Lillard and the addition of Morant than Cissoko.

The question for the French guard simply becomes when can he get playing time? The long-term injury of Sharpe makes the path a little easier, but Cissoko still has Holiday and Henderson and likely in front of him, along with the potential use of Krejci as a scoring option off the bench.

Nori seems to be a guy who might like a defensive minded and tough guard like Cissoko, even though that is Holiday’s calling guard as well. Perhaps we see Cissoko in some defensive-priority minutes, but his overall role remains unclear.

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