Portland

Trail Blazers

Signed to a two-way contract in March, Youngblood’s place on the Trail Blazers’ roster is relatively secure. He was excellent on Monday, leading six Portland players in double figures with 20 points and shooting 3-of-7 from beyond the arc. Unfortunately for Youngblood, Portland’s perimeter depth will make it challenging for him to get the opportunities needed to move from his two-way deal to a standard contract. He may be worth stashing in deep dynasty leagues, but that’s it.

Back in action after sitting out Sunday’s game against the Magic with an illness, Hansen had his best game of this year’s summer league. The second-year center missed just one shot from the field and did a good job of facilitating offense in the 111-84 victory. Hansen did not record any defensive stats, but the increased comfort on the offensive end was encouraging. The question now is whether the Trail Blazers feel that Hansen has shown them enough to merit being shut down for the rest of the summer. If anything, he’ll be best served by getting live reps against legitimate NBA bigs, which is unlikely to happen often in Portland’s remaining summer league games.

The 16th overall pick in the 2025 draft, Hansen recorded 12 points, nine rebounds and four assists in Friday’s loss to the Suns. With Donovan Clingan locked into the starting center role and Robert Williams III re-signed, Hansen will once again face long odds to earn consistent rotation minutes when the regular season begins. As for Sunday, his absence means more minutes will be available to Aliou Diarra, who was not selected in last month’s draft.

After failing to earn consistent rotation minutes as a rookie, Hansen will look to change that in 2026-27. He’ll be playing for a new head coach, but the Trail Blazers’ re-signing of Robert Williams III means that Hansen will once again face long odds. He finished Friday’s two-point defeat one rebound shy of a double-double, but there were no defensive contributions to speak of. With Donovan Clingan starting and the Time Lord backing him up, Hansen is likely to remain a player who should only be rostered in dynasty leagues.

Two days after being waived by the Pacers, Potter has found a new home. He appeared in 47 games for the Pacers last season, averaging 9.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 three-pointers in 19.3 minutes. With Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams III on the roster, Potter will find it challenging to get the minutes needed for fantasy relevance.

Even with past injury concerns, Williams was due to be a popular target in free agency for teams needing to bolster their center rotation. That won’t happen now, as the Time Lord has reportedly agreed to a deal to remain in Portland. Williams appeared in 59 games last season, averaging 6.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 17.1 minutes. With Donovan Clingan penned in as the starting center, Williams’ season-long fantasy value will be limited, but the blocks and rebounds can be useful.

The second overall pick in the 2019 draft, Morant’s time in Memphis has come to an end. While there were certainly high points, most notably his winning Rookie of the Year in 2020 and making two All-Star teams, the inability to stay healthy and off-court issues ultimately led the Grizzlies to seek a way to move on. Morant appeared in 20 games last season, averaging 19.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 8.1 assists, 1.0 steals and 1.0 three-pointers. With the Trail Blazers having Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday on the roster, it’s fair to wonder if this will be Morant’s final destination. He’ll likely need a move to a third team to protect his fantasy ceiling in 2026-27.

The news was first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania. Nori, 52, has been an NBA assistant coach since 2009 and most recently has been the lead assistant for Chris Finch and the Timberwolves since 2021. He and Finch were assistants together under Mike Malone in Denver, helping build an offense around Nikola Jokic that eventually led to a championship. Nori will be the 17th head coach in Trail Blazers franchise history. Portland was 42-40 last season and lost to the Spurs in five games in the first round of the playoffs.

Lillard ruptured his Achilles tendon during last season’s playoffs, missing the entire 2025-26 campaign as a result. The veteran guard, who turns 36 in July, appears to be on track to return to action next season, as he has resumed playing 5-on-5. Lillard also noted on Thursday that, while nothing was ever said about him possibly playing this season, he did think about the possibility. With Lillard back in the fold, the Trail Blazers should be in a position to take a step forward after earning the No. 7 seed in this year’s playoffs.

Avdija enjoyed a breakout season, which led to his first All-Star appearance. He also guided the Blazers back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021, though that season has now come to a close. He was red-hot entering the playoffs, but the top-tier Spurs defense made things difficult for him, which limited his production. Avdija was selected in the fifth round in Yahoo! leagues, but it will likely take an earlier selection to nab him in fantasy drafts next season.