Portland Trail Blazers: Five things you need to know

• Portland drafted Patty Mills in 2009, the first stop in a 1000-game NBA career.
• Four Australians have played for the Blazers, most recently Matisse Thybulle and Duop Reath.
• Portland finished 42-40, won a play-in game and lost 4-1 to San Antonio.

Patty Mills was a Portland Trail Blazer before he was anything else.

Taken with the 55th pick of the 2009 draft, the guard from Canberra spent two seasons in Oregon at the start of a career that would run past 1000 NBA games, the first by an Australian.

He was not the last Australian here. Luke Schenscher came through, then Matisse Thybulle spent three seasons in Portland, then Duop Reath turned a two-way contract into a standard NBA deal.

Four Australians, and a franchise that seems comfortable taking a chance on one.

Australians who have played for the Portland Trail Blazers

Patty Mills started his NBA career here.

Portland selected the Canberra guard 55th overall in 2009 and he spent two seasons with the club before moving on. What followed made him one of the most decorated Australians the sport has produced: a championship with San Antonio in 2014, spells at Brooklyn, Atlanta, Miami and Utah, and the distinction of becoming the first Australian to play 1000 NBA games.

Luke Schenscher was one of the earlier Australian big men to make it, a 215cm centre who played for Chicago and Portland.

Matisse Thybulle arrived at the 2023 trade deadline from Philadelphia and signed a three-year contract.

The perimeter defensive specialist picked up a USD $11.55 million player option to stay for the 2025-26 season, giving him three campaigns in Portland. He signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in July 2026 on a one-year deal worth USD $3.3 million.

Duop Reath did it the hard way.

The centre arrived on a two-way contract and played well enough that Portland converted it into a three-year standard NBA deal worth USD $6.2 million in February 2024, after 40 appearances including 11 starts. The club guaranteed his salary again for the 2025-26 season.

2026-27 team snapshot

Portland is back in the playoffs and has just made the loudest trade of the offseason.

The Blazers went 42-40 last season, clinched the seventh seed when Deni Avdija scored 41 points in the play-in, and drew San Antonio in the first round. The Spurs, 62-20 and on their way to the NBA Finals, won the series 4-1, closing it out 114-95. Victor Wembanyama scored 35 in Game 1 of his playoff debut.

Then on June 29, 2026, Portland acquired Ja Morant from Memphis for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.

Morant is a two-time All-Star with two years and around USD $87 million left on his maximum rookie extension. He averaged 19.5 points last season. The move was not universally admired: CBS Sports graded it D+ and called it a buy-low swing that makes little sense alongside the rest of the roster.

Portland has spent three years rebuilding and has just bet a chunk of it on a player other teams had stopped wanting.

Why the Blazers matter

Every NBA franchise has a story.

The Boston Celtics built a dynasty. The Los Angeles Lakers became basketball's glamour club. The San Antonio Spurs defined sustained excellence.

Portland is the cautionary tale about draft picks.

This is the franchise that took Sam Bowie one pick before Michael Jordan in 1984, and Greg Oden one pick before Kevin Durant in 2007. Two of the most consequential decisions in draft history, both wrong, both taken by the same club.

It is also a genuine basketball town, one championship, two more Finals, and a fanbase that has stayed through all of it.

For Australian readers it is the place Patty Mills began, and a club that has since handed NBA contracts to two more Australians, including one who arrived on a two-way deal and earned a standard one.

Bill Walton and the 1977 championship

Portland entered the NBA in 1970 and won a title within seven years.

Bill Walton was the centre and the reason, an extraordinary passing big man whose body betrayed him almost immediately afterwards. The 1977 Blazers beat Philadelphia in six games after losing the first two, and the parade drew a crowd the city still talks about.

Walton played only 58 games the following season. Portland has not won another championship since.

Clyde Drexler and the early 1990s

The next great Blazers team belonged to Clyde Drexler.

Portland reached the Finals in 1990 and 1992, losing to Detroit and then to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. Drexler was one of the best players of his era and never had a season quite good enough to get past the two dynasties in his way.

Two draft picks that defined the franchise

In 1984 Portland held the second pick and took Sam Bowie. Michael Jordan went third.

In 2007 Portland held the first pick and took Greg Oden. Kevin Durant went second.

Both decisions were defensible at the time and both have followed the club for decades. Bowie and Oden were undone by injury rather than talent, which has never made the comparison any kinder.

The Damian Lillard era

Damian Lillard arrived sixth overall in 2012 and became the most beloved player in franchise history.

He took Portland to the 2019 Western Conference finals and produced two of the most famous series-ending shots the league has seen. He was traded in 2023, and the rebuild that followed produced the roster now being reshaped around Ja Morant.

The greatest Blazers of all time

Bill Walton delivered the only championship and remains the most gifted player to wear the jersey.

Clyde Drexler is the franchise's leading scorer and its most consistent superstar.

Damian Lillard is the most beloved, a decade of loyalty to a small-market club and a highlight reel of impossible shots.

Terry Porter, Maurice Lucas and Brandon Roy each defined an era of Portland basketball.

And Patty Mills, for two seasons at the very start, is where Australia's connection to this club begins.

Five Fast Facts

1. Portland drafted Patty Mills 55th overall in 2009, the first club of his 1000-game NBA career.

2. Four Australians have played for the Blazers: Mills, Luke Schenscher, Matisse Thybulle and Duop Reath.

3. Portland won its only NBA championship in 1977 behind Bill Walton.

4. The Blazers took Sam Bowie before Michael Jordan in 1984 and Greg Oden before Kevin Durant in 2007.

5. Ja Morant joined Portland from Memphis in June 2026 for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.

Historical Timeline

• 1970: Portland enters the NBA as an expansion team.
• 1977: Win the NBA championship behind Bill Walton.
• 1984: Draft Sam Bowie second overall, one pick before Michael Jordan.
• 1990: Reach the NBA Finals and lose to Detroit.
• 1992: Reach the NBA Finals and lose to Chicago.
• 2007: Draft Greg Oden first overall, one pick before Kevin Durant.
• 2009: Draft Patty Mills 55th overall.
• 2012: Draft Damian Lillard sixth overall.
• 2019: Reach the Western Conference finals.
• 2023: Trade Damian Lillard and acquire Matisse Thybulle.
• 2024: Convert Duop Reath's two-way deal into a standard NBA contract.
• 2026: Reach the playoffs as the seventh seed and trade for Ja Morant.

Looking ahead

Portland has come out of its rebuild faster than expected and immediately done something divisive.

A 42-40 season and a play-in win got the club back to the postseason for the first time since the Lillard years. San Antonio then demonstrated the difference between making the playoffs and mattering in them. Adding Ja Morant is a swing at closing that gap in one move, and the reviews have been mixed at best.

The Australian connection has thinned. Thybulle is a Laker now, and Reath's future is the open question of the roster.

But this is where Patty Mills started, and Portland has handed NBA contracts to Australians in three different decades. On a masthead that counts those things, that record is worth keeping an eye on.