As a result, building a quality roster is extremely important for franchises to succeed in the West. Unfortunately, the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> have failed to do so in recent years.<\/p>\n The silver lining is the fact that the Trail Blazers have seemingly found a long-term head coach in Chauncey Billups<\/a>. But Billups can\u2019t lead the Trail Blazers to glory unless the front office builds a quality roster.<\/p>\n Considering the Trail Blazers have missed the postseason in four straight seasons, it\u2019s evident that the roster isn\u2019t up to the mark.<\/p>\n To improve that, the franchise has made some key additions to the team. Speaking of which, the biggest addition is of Damian Lillard<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Blazers signed Lillard to a three-year deal<\/a> following his exit from the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>. But what else has the organization done this summer? Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n Damian Lillard (Signed on a three-year deal)Blake Wesley (Signed a one-year deal)Jrue Holiday (Traded from Boston Celtics<\/a>)<\/p>\n Lillard\u2019s return following a short stint with the Bucks has the Trail Blazers fans buzzing. But considering Dame is recovering from a torn Achilles tendon injury<\/a>, he will likely miss most of the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n As a result, it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if fans get more excited over Jrue Holiday\u2019s<\/a> fit on the team, at least until Lillard makes a comeback.<\/p>\n Biggest departures from the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 roster With the Trail Blazers currently facing a four-year playoff drought, it was obvious that some players needed to leave.<\/p>\n But who were these players? Here is a look at all the departures from the Trail Blazers\u2019 roster ahead of the 2025-26 NBA season.<\/p>\n Deandre Ayton (Contract buyout)Anfernee Simons (Traded to Boston Celtics)<\/p>\n Both Deandre Ayton<\/a> and Anfernee Simons<\/a> were key starters for the Trail Blazers last season. However, due to injury concerns and lack of success, the franchise decided to part ways with them.<\/p>\n Interestingly, Ayton is now with the LA Lakers<\/a> while Simons has been sent to their rivals, the Boston Celtics<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Trail Blazers are hoping to turn back the clock during the 2025-26 NBA season. In the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[4329,7,7008,601,125,1586,2038,6,687,471,3967,1617,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-307814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-anfernee-simons","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-blake-wesley","11":"tag-blazers","12":"tag-damian-lillard","13":"tag-deandre-ayton","14":"tag-jrue-holiday","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-portland","17":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","18":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","19":"tag-trail-blazers","20":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115278745765947925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Damian](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-2226394102-941x627.jpg\")
Photo by Amanda Loman\/Getty ImagesBiggest additions to the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 roster<\/p>\n![\"Deandre](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2197535753-941x627.jpg\")
Photo by Soobum Im\/Getty Images<\/p>\n