The Rose Garden—or the Moda Center, if you’re being formal—is currently home to one of the weirdest experiments in the NBA. If you’ve tuned into a game lately, you know the starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups puts on the floor is less about winning a title right now and more about surviving a massive identity crisis. It’s a jigsaw puzzle where half the pieces are from different boxes.
Honest truth? It’s kind of a mess, but it’s a fascinating mess.
Watching the Blazers in 2026 isn’t like the Lillard era where you knew exactly who was taking the last shot. Now, the starting five changes based on who is healthy, who hasn't been traded yet, and which young prospect needs "burn." We are looking at a roster caught between a high-speed rebuild and a veteran logjam that makes the rotation feel like a game of musical chairs played at 2x speed.
Why the Starting Lineup Portland Trail Blazers Use Is Never Set in Stone
The biggest headache for anyone trying to track the starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers rotations is the sheer volume of guards. It’s a surplus. You’ve got Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons, and Shaedon Sharpe all vying for minutes that simply don't exist in a 48-minute game. When Billups tries to start three of them together, the defense usually falls off a cliff.
Usually, the backcourt starts with Anfernee Simons. He’s the veteran presence now, which feels wild to say because it feels like he was just a rookie dunk contest champ yesterday. Simons provides the spacing. Without him, the floor shrinks to the size of a postage stamp. He’s often paired with Scoot Henderson, whose sophomore leap has been more of a series of aggressive hops than a vertical flight.
But here is where it gets tricky.
Shaedon Sharpe is the "X-factor" that messes with the math. When Sharpe is healthy, he belongs in that starting group. He has that effortless, "I might jump over the backboard" athleticism that you can't teach. However, starting Simons, Henderson, and Sharpe together makes Portland incredibly small. It forces one of them to guard a wing who might have six inches and forty pounds on them. It’s not sustainable, yet they keep trying it because the talent is too high to bench.
The Frontcourt Logjam: Ayton, Clingan, and the Space Between
If the backcourt is crowded, the frontcourt is a literal mountain range. The starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers fans debated most this offseason revolved around the "Twin Towers" look.
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Deandre Ayton is the incumbent. He’s "DominAyton," at least in spurts. He has that midrange jumper that looks like pure silk but often leaves fans screaming for him to just dunk the ball. Then you have Donovan Clingan. The rookie out of UConn brought a defensive gravity that the Blazers haven't had since... well, maybe ever.
- Ayton usually gets the nod at the five because of his contract and veteran status.
- Clingan is the future, often coming off the bench but finishing games when the team needs stops.
- Toumani Camara is the glue. He’s the guy who actually plays defense while everyone else is hunting highlights.
Camara is perhaps the most important person in the starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers fans don't talk about enough. He’s a "connector." He doesn't need the ball. In a lineup filled with guys who want to shoot 20 times a night, you need a guy like Camara who is happy just hitting corners and diving for loose balls.
The Jerami Grant Dilemma
You can't talk about the Portland starters without mentioning Jerami Grant. He’s too good for a rebuilding team. That’s the consensus among league scouts and the "Trade Machine" addicts on Twitter. Grant is a premier wing who can give you 20 points and switch onto the opponent's best player.
When he’s in the lineup, everything looks professional. When he sits, the team looks like a high-end G-League squad. The problem is that starting Grant takes minutes away from the developmental pieces. If the Blazers are serious about the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes or whatever high-end draft talent is coming next, playing Grant 35 minutes a night is almost counter-productive.
The Statistical Reality of Portland’s Best Five
If we look at the numbers—the real, gritty net rating stuff—the starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers units that actually perform well aren't always the ones that start the game.
Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass show a startling trend: Portland’s best lineups involve Deni Avdija. The trade for Avdija was low-key one of the smartest moves Joe Cronin has made. He brings a secondary playmaking element that takes the pressure off Scoot.
Imagine this:
Scoot Henderson at the 1.
Anfernee Simons at the 2.
Deni Avdija at the 3.
Jerami Grant at the 4.
Deandre Ayton at the 5.
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On paper, that’s a play-in team in the Western Conference. In reality, injuries have kept this specific five-man unit from playing more than a handful of games together. The chemistry just isn't there yet. You see guys pointing at each other after a missed rotation. You see Simons looking frustrated when the ball gets stuck in the post.
Defensive Woes and the "No-Fly Zone"
The glaring issue? Defense.
The Blazers have hovered near the bottom of the league in defensive rating for what feels like a decade. Changing the starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers staff didn't magically fix that. Billups was an elite defender as a player, but translating that to a roster of 20-year-olds is like teaching a cat to bark.
Robert Williams III—"Time Lord"—is the ghost in the machine here. When he’s healthy (which is a big 'if'), he changes the entire complexion of the starting five. He’s a vertical spacer and a shot-blocking menace. If he could ever stay on the floor for 60 games, the Blazers wouldn't be a lottery team. But since he’s usually sidelined, the burden falls on Clingan and Ayton to protect a rim that is constantly under siege because the guards can't stay in front of their man.
Misconceptions About the Blazers' Strategy
Most people think Portland is just tanking. That’s a bit of a simplification.
They are actually trying to "thread the needle." They want to remain competitive enough that Scoot and Sharpe learn how to play winning basketball, but bad enough to keep their draft picks. This "middle ground" is why the starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers fans see every night is so inconsistent. One night it's a veteran-heavy group designed to beat a beat-up Spurs team. The next night, it's the "kids" getting 40 minutes in a blowout loss to the Thunder.
It's frustrating. It's confusing. But it's also the only way forward when you trade a franchise icon like Damian Lillard. You have to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.
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How to Project the Lineup Moving Forward
If you’re betting on or tracking this team, keep an eye on the injury report—obviously—but also look at the trade rumors. The starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers use in November will almost certainly not be the one they use in March.
Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons are the biggest "dominoes." If one or both are moved for more picks or younger wings, the lineup shifts entirely. We could see a world where Dalano Banton—the Canadian fireball who seems to score 30 points out of nowhere once a month—actually gets consistent starting minutes.
That’s the beauty and the curse of Rip City right now.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Analysts
To truly understand what's happening with the Blazers' rotation, you have to look past the box score.
- Watch the "Deni-Scoot" Connection: Look at how many times Avdija initiates the offense to let Scoot run off screens. This is the future of their half-court set.
- Monitor the Fourth Quarter Minutes: Who Billups leaves on the floor in the final five minutes tells you more about who he trusts than who starts the game. Often, Toumani Camara is out there over more expensive players because he won't blow a defensive assignment.
- The Clingan Factor: If Donovan Clingan starts getting the nod over a healthy Ayton, it signals the "rebuild" has moved into its final, most aggressive phase.
- Track the Corner 3s: Portland’s offense dies when they don't have shooters in the corners to space for Henderson’s drives. If the starting lineup lacks two "gravity" shooters, expect a long night of contested mid-range jumpers.
The starting lineup Portland Trail Blazers fans are watching is a work in progress. It’s a bridge to whatever comes next. Whether that bridge leads to a championship contender or another five years of the lottery depends entirely on how these disparate pieces—the veterans, the "Twin Towers," and the three-headed guard monster—eventually fit together. Or, more likely, which ones are moved to make room for a clearer vision.
The most important thing to remember is that in Portland, the starting five isn't a destination; it's a revolving door of potential. Keep your eyes on the young core, because by next season, the names on the back of the jerseys might be the only thing that stays the same.