On Ja Morant, Jay Triano, USA soccer and MLB All-Star Game Beavers …
Knocking it about on a few sports subjects as we swing into the second half of 2026:
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There is one reason — well, maybe two — to believe that the trade for Demetrius Jamel “Ja” Morant is good for the Trail Blazers, and several reasons why it is not.
The Yay: Morant is an exceptional talent, the 2019-20 NBA Rookie of the Year and a two-time All-Star who averaged 27.9 points in 2021-22 and 26.2 points in 2022-23. For his career, his averages are 19.5 points and 8.1 assists. With a 44-inch vertical, he is one of league’s most explosive dunkers when healthy and in the lineup. And Lord knows, he should be eager to make a good impression in what amounts to a fresh start after seven years in Memphis.
But the not-so-good side is voluminous.
A 50-second mixtape of Morant displayed on YouTube called “Welcome to Portland” shows an array of roundhouse dunks, spins to the basket and flashy blocks, but no perimeter shots for a reason. He is a career .311 3-point shooter who, in 20 games with Memphis last season, was 20 for 85 (.235) from beyond the arc, shooting .411 overall from the field.
The 6-2 Morant is slight at 175 pounds, and over the past three seasons he has missed games due to back, shoulder, hamstring, hand, knee, ankle, foot, calf and elbow injuries. During that period he has played in only 79 of 246 regular-season games. Not all of the absences, however, have been due to injury.
The off-court behavior is the most troubling aspect of Portland’s Morant acquisition. In 2023, the NBA administered two separate suspensions — one for eight games, the other for 25 — for displaying a gun in a nightclub, then doing the same on a friend’s Instagram Live account. In 2025, he was warned by NBA officials for making multiple gun-aiming gestures in one game, then fined $75,000 for doing it again the next game.
Who says Ja isn’t a good shooter?
It wasn’t just his firearm frenzy. This past season, Morant was at the center of locker-room friction, which led to a heated confrontation with coach Tuomas Iiasalo and a suspension. Team morale suffered along with the team’s record, which plummeted from 48-34 in 2024-25 to 25-57 last season.
After going down with a sprained elbow in January, Morant and the Grizzlies shut it down for the season. Part of it was going into tank mode for the draft lottery. Part of it was team officials who were through dealing with him. In their view, Morant is Portland’s problem now.
Owner Tom Dundon and general manager Joe Cronin clearly thought Morant — who has two years left on a contract that calls for him to make $87 million over the duration — was such a talent, it was worth the gamble to take him on. Given Portland’s history with the Jail Blazers, you would think they would have been extra careful to not add a player of questionable character. Evidently, like former Blazers GM Bob Whitsitt, they didn’t major in chemistry.
With Jerami Grant now in Memphis, the Blazers’ roster is heavily imbalanced. It carries five guards who will expect major playing time next season — Morant, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson and Shaeden Sharpe. (To a degree, incidentally, the styles of Morant and Sharpe are remarkably similar — high fliers, showy dunkers, not so great from 3-point range.)
A few of the minutes can be had by using the 6-6 Sharpe, and perhaps the 6-4 Holiday, at small forward. Toumani Camara will be the starter there on a front line also featuring Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan.
The biggest problem in the backcourt comes on the defensive side. New coach Micah Nori has indicated he intends to start Lillard and Morant. Both are 6-2 and largely indifferent defenders. At 36, Holiday is still willing and capable but not the defensive stopper he once was. Henderson and Sharpe showed improvement last season on that side of the ball, but both remain offense-oriented.
Avdija is one of the game’s rising offensive stars but closer to a liability on defense. Clingan and Robert Williams solve a lot of issues as rim-protectors, but Camara’s on-ball defensive prowess will be essential given the perimeter players around him.
Wait a minute, Eggers, you say. Cronin surely has another trade up his sleeve, perhaps giving up Sharpe for a power forward who can rebound and play defense. A player like OG Anunoby, Evan Mobley, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jaden McDaniels, Aaron Gordon or Scottie Barnes.
Makes sense, but I don’t see anyone available out there other than free agent Draymond Green, who is 36, creates his own set of headaches and will almost surely re-sign with the Warriors, anyway.
Maybe Cronin will pull one out of his hat and get a steal, as he did swiping Avdija from the Wizards and Camara from the Suns. The Blazers are well above the salary cap but slightly below the luxury tax for next season. My bet is this is basically the roster new coach Micah Nori will greet when training camp rolls around in late September.
Morant may turn out to be another gold mine for Cronin, or perhaps just fool’s gold. Nori’s first head-coaching opportunity will test the veteran assistant’s capabilities, and perhaps his patience as well.
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I was glad to see Nori’s hiring of Jay Triano as his lead assistant. Triano, 67, was an assistant coach with the Blazers under Terry Stotts from 2012-16. During that time, Triano also served as Canada’s national coach. Nori served two seasons on Triano’s staff when Jay was head coach of the Toronto Raptors from 2009-11 — Nori’s first job in the NBA.
Triano, who was on Jason Kidd’s staff in Dallas last season, has coached in the NBA for most of the past 25 years, as head coach in Toronto and Phoenix. He is well-respected, stocked with a wealth of experience and knowledge and a calming presence. Triano will be of great help as Nori navigates the most important season of his coaching career.
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Donald Trump accomplished at least three things when he made the call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino about the red card administered to United States soccer star Folarin Balogun in the World Cup.
Trump played at least some part in FIFA’s decision to reinstate Balogun for Monday’s World Cup match with Belgium.
The rescinding of the referee’s ruling turned at least a portion of the world’s soccer fans — and officials from many of the competing nations — against the U.S. team.
And it created an extra level of motivation for the Belgians in their 4-1 Round-of-16 thumping of the Americans in Seattle.
“Of course that motivated our group,” Belgium midfielder Nicolas Raskin told media afterward. “It was an injustice that made for a special buildup.”
Perhaps it even put added pressure on the U.S. team, which seemed to get a reality check after advancing through the tournament against lesser foes.
Broadcaster Carli Lloyd, the former U.S. women’s star and two-time World Cup and Olympic champion, said the U.S. players looked “tentative, scared, just not confident with the ball. I felt like they lost the game before they even stepped on the pitch.”
What is for sure is that a sitting president has no business getting involved in what was clearly a coordinated lobbying effort by U.S. officials to gain Balogun’s reinstatement. No matter how much impact Trump’s call had, whether or not the red card was deserved, it was a very bad look.
The result was karma.
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Tampa Bay pitcher Drew Rasmussen will make his second straight appearance in the MLB All-Star Game as one of three former Oregon State players on the American League squad (courtesy OSU sports communications)
The American League dugout will have some familiar faces during next Tuesday’s All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
Former Oregon Staters Drew Rasmussen, Adley Rutschman and Travis Bazzana will be members of the AL team. Rasmussen (Tampa Bay) and Rutschman (Baltimore) played together with the Beavers in 2017 and ’18 and could wind up being a battery together for an inning in Philly. Bazzana, the rookie second baseman for Cleveland, was with OSU from 2022-24.
My investigation uncovers only two programs that have ever been represented with three players on the same All-Star team, both from Southern Cal. In 1979, Steve Kemp, Fred Lynn and Roy Smalley were all on the AL team. In 2003, Aaron Boone, Mark Prior and Geoff Jenkins were on the NL squad.
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