Morant and Lillard Both Day-to-Day, and Training Camp Is Weeks Away

Portland made the biggest bet of its rebuild on June 29, trading Jerami Grant and Kris Murray to Memphis for Ja Morant — a two-time All-Star who, when healthy, is one of the more electric guards in the league. The idea was straightforward: surround him with Jrue Holiday, Shaedon Sharpe, and a frontcourt anchored by Robert Williams III, and see if last season's 43-40 finish was a floor rather than a ceiling. Right now, though, both Morant and Damian Lillard are listed day-to-day, and nobody is saying much about why.

The timing is what makes this worth noting. These aren't in-season maintenance days. Training camp is still weeks out, and the Blazers need this summer to figure out how three ball-dominant guards share a floor. Holiday's efficiency slipped badly down the stretch last season — his shooting fell more than six percentage points as his usage climbed — and that was before Morant entered the picture. The integration work has to start somewhere, and it can't start if the principals aren't on the court.

The rest of the roster has been moving. Portland signed Jeremy Sochan on August 2, adding a switchable defender to a backcourt-heavy group that lost Matisse Thybulle to the Lakers last month. Williams III is locked in on a three-year extension. The supporting pieces are more or less in place. What isn't in place is any clarity on when the two players the whole plan revolves around will be available to practice together.

Day-to-day designations in August don't always mean much. Sometimes they mean nothing at all. But Portland doesn't have a lot of runway here — the roster is new, the offensive hierarchy is unsettled, and the defensive gains from last spring need to be rebuilt from scratch with a different group. Worth watching over the next couple of weeks.