The Blazers need a sixth man to step up, or else they’ll have to explore the trade market.
Dreams of competing during the playoffs in a massively talented Western Conference are slowly disappearing for the Portland Trail Blazers and their fans. They find themselves at 13-12, sixth in the Western Conference. They are also on a downward trend, losing four-straight home games.
These struggles can be attributed to injuries, to some extent. Al-Farouq Aminu, a very important piece to the team, missed significant time this season. Starting power forward Noah Vonleh was absent at the start due to a lingering offseason injury. Lastly, Jusuf Nurkić and Maurice Harkless currently miss time.
However, a majority of Portland’s deficiencies stem from poor play and bad rotations. There doesn’t seem to be a reliable lineup for the Blazers. The closest they have is with the usual starters of: Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Aminu, Harkless and Nurkić.
Blazers Reserves
Bench unit stats
One quarter of the way into the 2017 season and Portland has yet to find consistent bench production from one player, let alone an entire unit.
The team sits at 25th overall in points per game off the bench with 28.3, which is slightly better than their finish last season (27th). They are also 25th in field goal percentage at 42.7%, well under league average.
Even worse is the ball movement: Portland’s bench sits 28th in assists per game with 5.2. Four to five players coming off the bench for the Blazers means barely one assist per game, per backup. Yikes!
Their saving grace is being 4th in rebounds with 18.4 (thanks to Ed Davis, with over seven per game).
Defensively, the bench is 24th in steals and 16th in blocks.
Last year, in all of those respective categories (starting with FG%), the Blazers bench ranked 23rd, 26th, 15th, 22nd, and 20th. Already weak reserves were only able to improve upon rebounding.*
*All numbers courtesy of Hoops Stats.
Losing Allen Crabbe
Part of the decline and current frenzy was the loss of Allen Crabbe. Even though he averaged just over ten points per contest the last two seasons, he was third in the league amongst eligible players in three-point field goal percentage.
Crabbe came off screens excellently, enabling easy spot up attempts. He was also a capable defender, keeping up with great opposing scorers.
Instead of finding a playmaker to join Crabbe with the second squad, Portland traded him and his larger-than-life contract for breathing room. The lack of financial movement is due to the poor contracts on Evan Turner, Meyers Leonard, and Maurice Harkless.
Current bench unit struggles
Turner has been the scape goat for Portland’s lack of production and ball movement. He turns the ball over often, can’t run sets properly and shoots poorly.
Leonard has had a couple of bright spots this season, but it’s the same old, brick-after-brick version of Leonard we are used to seeing. As for Harkless, he is no longer the wing player this team needs. Mediocre defense combined with virtually no work on the offensive end is the reason he went to the bench.
With a below average bench, Portland is doomed. Teams with great reserve units are thriving this season. Cleveland, who’s second team is being led by Dwyane Wade and Kyle Korver, just wrapped up a 13-game win streak.
The Warriors and Rockets are dominating the West. Their stars are replaced by guys like Shaun Livingston and Jordan Bell, and Eric Gordon and P.J. Tucker (respectively).
Don’t sleep on San Antonio either, as they lead the league in many per-game bench categories.
All the Blazers need at the moment is one guy – one ideal sixth man who can be a force for the team and prevent so many blown leads.