The 2024-25 Portland Trail Blazers have a variety of options at the shooting guard position heading into this season, though everyone is fairly raw and developing.
Let’s see what their expected depth looks like at the position, in what appears to be another season entirely about development.
Learn more: 2024 Trail Blazers Position Preview: Point Guard
Sharpe is expected to take on the starting second-back role, while Former starting guard Anfernee Simons is expected to become the club’s starting point guard.The 6-foot-6 Kentucky player saw his production increase significantly during the 2023-24 season. He averaged an encouraging 15.9 points while shooting .406/.333/.824, 5.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 0.9 steals per night.
A two-time All-Defensive Team member with the Philadelphia 76ers, Thybulle has struggled since arriving in Portland midway through the 2022-23 season. After starting all 22 games in that first season, he assumed a backup role in 2023-24. In 65 healthy games last year, he averaged just 5.4 points on .397/.346/.759 shooting, 2.1 rebounds, 1.7 steals, 1.4 assists and 0.8 rejections per night. Thybulle’s jump shot is such a problem — and head coach Chauncey Billups clearly hasn’t valued his defensive contributions enough — that the team opted not to risk starting him.
Still, Thybulle, who can play either guard or wing, is one of the team’s few wing defenders, along with starting power forward Jerami Grant. Like Grant, Thybulle is a perhaps overpaid veteran who could potentially be used as a bargaining chip.
Drafted 43rd overall in 2023, Rupert could see more playing time. In 39 games with Portland last year (12 starts), he averaged 4.0 points on a .335/.359/.760 batting average, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. In six regular-season games for the Trail Blazers’ NBAGL affiliate, the Rip City Remix, he averaged 12.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.8 steals per game.
It’s possible that Anfernee Simons, who is expected to be demoted to the team’s starting point guard role again, could play some minutes at backup point guard, pairing with his own backup point guard, Scoot Henderson.
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