Rip City Project
Fansided

Mailbag: Are the Trail Blazers deep enough at point guard?

By David MacKay

facebooktwitterreddit

The mailbag is now run through Twitter. If you would like to have your Trail Blazers questions discussed, follow @ripcityproject and send them our way.

Until the Portland Trail Blazers have a point guard that can defend at an above average level, my answer has to be ‘no’. Steve Blake does a respectable job, but he is 35 years old with a long history of injury. I wouldn’t hedge my bets on him playing another 81/82 game season next year. Tim Frazier will be fun to keep an eye on from a facilitating standpoint but he is too small to be the impact defender Portland needs.

Operating under the assumption that Blake opts in, as was his reported intention back in February, the Trail Blazers possess four players that can conceivably run the point. Before Blake and Frazier, come Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Ideally, Lillard will make defensive improvements and McCollum will spend most of his time at shooting guard, but there are more than enough players available for the Trail Blazers to cobble together a passable effort. However, “cobbling together a passable effort” is, as you stated, not enough to win a title.

The Trail Blazers possess the 23rd pick in the upcoming draft and could seek to address the defense issue with their selection. Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant and Utah’s Delon Wright are the only two defensively apt point guards in the late-first round, the former likely to be off the board by the time Portland has their turn. Unless the Trail Blazers are enamored with Wright and want to exhaust that resource on him, they should consider looking around in free agency.

If they decide to go this route, guys on their immediate radar should include:

More from Blazers News

Though Dellavedova and Beverley are the fiercest defenders listed, both could be theoretically attainable as their teams deal with arising cap issues. I am skeptical that Portland would pursue Beverley, given the uncomfortable history between him and Lillard, but not enough to scratch him off as an option.

Lately, there has been talk of guys like Jameer Nelson or Jose Calderon as possible additions as well. Both are seasoned vets with a lot to offer on the offensive end, but if I’m the GM in this situation, I’m touching neither of them with a 100 foot pole until I see noteworthy defensive improvement from Lillard. Putting Calderon on the floor is essentially agreeing to guard with 4-on-5 to begin with. Trying to play him with Lillard simultaneously at all would be a train wreck. Nelson is not so bad, but I don’t see him being more than redundant as long as Blake remains in red and black.

Regardless of who the Trail Blazers may pursue, they have more pressing issues to attend to first. Attempting to re-sign LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, and Robin Lopez will be their no. 1 priority. If all goes well on that front, Portland may not have enough money left over to be seriously considered by the defensively gifted, who will all fetch reasonable contracts. In which case, guys like Calderon and Nelson could be reconsidered.

In a perfect world, the Trail Blazers could patch the defensive hole at point guard with in-house development, but they run into that initial problem with their second unit again: One player is too old, one player is too small, and the other player would create matchup problems by playing out of position. The fact of the matter is that there may not be an easy fix, no matter which path the Trail Blazers tread; especially since any real defensive improvement has to begin with Lillard, who will receive the bulk of the minutes in any circumstance.

My personal preference would be to either draft Wright or push an offer sheet in front of Dellavedova/Cole. If the Trail Blazers want any sort of long-term fix, they have to factor youth into the equation. Right now they have point guard depth as far as numbers are concerned, but they don’t have anyone that fits their defensive need. They can always try their luck without a defensive point guard again, but they will continue to run into the same matchup problems if they do.

More from Rip City Project

Next: What does the future hold for Joel Freeland?