The Portland Trail Blazers’ breakout performer of the 2024-25 NBA season will come off the bench to open the exhibition season.
The Blazers are starting Jrue Holiday, Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara, Jerami Grant and Donovan Clingan against the Golden State Warriors Wednesday night at Chase Center.
That means Deni Avdija will come off the bench.
But, as coach Chauncey Billups cautioned Tuesday, there’s “no reason to read into anything” into the surprise move.
Billups said he planned to “tinker” with his starting lineup and rotation throughout the preseason, so much so that he was contemplating using a different starting five in all four of the Blazers’ exhibition games.
“My thing in the preseason,” he said Tuesday, “is I’ll just kind of rotate (everything). This guy’s starting one night, this guy’s coming off (the bench). I’ll just kind of rotate several of the guys. No reason to read into anything. I’m just kind of looking at different rotations, looking at how it’s going.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, are starting Steph Curry, Moses Moody, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Al Horford.
The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
The Blazers also released their injury report Wednesday afternoon and there was a surprise inclusion. In addition to Scoot Henderson (left hamstring tear), Robert Williams III (return to competition), and Damian Lillard (left Achilles tendon), Matisse Thybulle (right knee soreness) will also miss tonight’s opener.
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