Some ideas and possible solutions to the Blazers’ problems.
While Portland will likely continue rolling out similar rotations in the near future, they may eventually need to switch things up to solve their issues.
First and foremost, Maurice Harkless will need to be a better three-point shooter to be an effective starter. His injury concerns at the beginning of the season kept him out of games, but as he continues recovering, it appears Head Coach Terry Stotts envisions Harkless being the starting small forward on this team.
His 3/15 shooting thus far is nowhere good enough to warrant respect from his defender and keep the floor open for Lillard and McCollum to operate.
Of course, Harkless’s defense is his best quality. Because of this, the Blazers may be pigeonholed into playing him for his effectiveness on that side of the ball since Lillard and McCollum lack the necessary size to stop other backcourts around the league. At least with Harkless and Aminu, the Blazers can hang their hat on having solid wing defenders, even if their guards can’t always stop their counterparts.
If Harkless can’t get his three-point shooting back to where it was last year, the Blazers may be best served in finally trading CJ McCollum.
This would be a tough pill to swallow. The question is not whether McCollum is good on the Blazers or if he adds to the team’s chemistry – both answers are a resounding yes – but whether the Blazers’ ceiling could be higher with a more defensive-minded shooting guard or a potential All-Star 3-and-D wing.
To trade McCollum now would be foolish. The team has looked and been solid with him as co-captain. But should the Blazers continue their struggles….
The Blazers have options with CJ.
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Maybe the Blazers try to swap him for Bradley Beal on a sputtering Washington Wizards team. Beal could give a similar scoring output while being a slight upgrade defensively. Or, they could do a series of moves, ending in dumping McCollum to recoup any assets they give up in other trades (ones that may include trading Harkless, Leonard, or either rookie) and then trying their luck in a loaded 2019 free agency.
Guys like Khris Middleton, Klay Thompson, and Tobias Harris may be a cleaner fit next to Lillard.
But before making such a drastic change, the Blazers should experiment more with Zach Collins alongside Nurkic. So far, Stotts has only played the two in limited minutes together, and it’s hard to tell if they’d be effective as a unit.
In the abstract, the two seem like they’d complement each other well. Both are solid rim-protectors. Collins being only 230 pounds right now makes him slightly less effective and more prone to fouling against the NBA’s best centers. But he could certainly hold his own as a long and mobile power forward.
Collins has also been solid from deep this year, hitting 36.8% of his attempts. His playing the four would be an upgrade both shooting- and spacing-wise over both Aminu and Harkless.
The Blazers would then need to figure out who they preferred to start at small forward. With both players being good defenders and streaky shooters, they would likely choose the guy who could best play down a position to guard elite one- and two-guards to aid Lillard and McCollum.
Although playing two seven-footers may seem ludicrous in today’s NBA, a skid only a fourth of the way is the perfect excuse for experimentation and tinkering with this Blazers’ lineup.