Shade Piper and Trenton Corn break down a wish list for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Christmas is the one time of year when it is easiest to reflect and realize how blessed you really are. As Blazers fans we really have been blessed over the recent years. The Blazers haven’t had the post season success that we would all love to see, but they have been in the playoffs 8 of the last 10 years, including 5 straight playoff appearance. Along with the playoff appearances, The Blazers have only drug us through 2 sub-0.500 seasons in the past 10 years. Call it mediocrity if you wish, but if you get to watch more wins than losses in a season, that’s a blessing and that’s more than a lot of other fan bases can say about their respective franchises over the last 10 seasons.
Another thing that goes hand and hand with the holiday season is a wish list. Everybody has their Christmas lists that they load full of things they hope to see wrapped under the tree come Christmas morning, and that had fellow Rip City Project contributor, Shade Piper and I thinking. What do we hope Santa brings the Portland Trail Blazers this year?
So here is our Christmas wish-list for the Blazers this year:
1. Defensive Improvements
Whether it be personnel changes, coaching changes, or scheme changes anything that could improve our defense would be a Christmas miracle at this point. If the Blazers could bring in some kind of genius defensive coordinator that could rework the defensive schemes and bring renewed effort on that end of the court I think it would do a lot with improving the team as a whole. They aren’t perfect on offense by any means, but defense is by far the worst of their problems for the most part, so reworking the defense is definitely number one on my Trail Blazers Christmas List.
2. Better coaching and/or management
It’s no shocker that Olshey would make an appearance on this Christmas wish list I mean what has he done with this roster outside of the draft really? Jusuf Nurkic? Anything else? I, along with most Blazers fans, am definitely not completely satisfied with his work in the front office and who wouldn’t want a GM like Ainge or Presti if they could have them? This is a wish list right?
You also might’ve noticed that coaching was part of this wish list item. I think a lot of fans still like Coach Stotts and I like him too as a person and it would honestly be a little sad to see him go, but thinking with my head and not my heart he hasn’t done the best job. Being a likable guy only goes so far and when it comes down to actually coaching he isn’t quite getting the job done. Yes he’s winning games, but as mentioned earlier the defense is awful and the offense is flawed as well. I already talked about the defense, but I’d like to touch on the offense a little. If the Blazers could find the next Steve Kerr they could have a scary good offense. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum are probably the closest thing in the league to the Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson pairing. The biggest difference is Dame and CJ don’t work together as well, they don’t move the ball well enough or move without the ball well enough. There’s too much isolation with Dame and CJ. A great coach that could teach them how to work together better would be another much needed Blazers improvement. This is why coaching and management improvements are second on my Trail Blazers Christmas List.
3. Another Star
This is pretty much on every NBA fan’s wish list for their team, but the Blazers in particular need another star. For the most part, in today’s NBA it takes at least 3 stars to compete at a high level. The Blazers only have 2 and even at that Dame and CJ have become redundant at times. I think this could be improved with better coaching as mentioned earlier, but I also think that CJ would be better suited as a 3rd option. This again goes back to the Olshey complaints mentioned earlier, but Jimmy Butler was available earlier in the season (he is a star that can also play defense I might add) and there was no word of any talks with the Trail Blazers whatsoever. There were also talks of the Wizards potentially breaking up their core, but again no word of any Blazers interest in Bradley Beal or Otto Porter. Olshey doesn’t seem very motivated to make a move for another star, but this is a wish list so I’m still hoping that Santa can put a star under the Trail Blazer tree this year. This would be at the top of my wish list, but me being a little realistic knew it would take a whole new level of Christmas miracle for Olshey to make a move for a star so I put it 3rd on my Trail Blazers Christmas List.
4. Zach Collins breakout
This kind of goes along with my last wish list item in that I think Zach Collins could eventually develop into being a star. This might be wishful thinking, but with his size and shooting abilities he could develop into a Kevin Love type player. If he could develop into a great rebounder like a young Kevin Love he could be our 3rd star. I really think he could have some potential defensively as well. I wish there were more minutes to go around at center and/or power forward so Collins’ development could be accelerated a little. This is probably the Blazers most realistic path to a 3rd star so here’s to hoping that Santa can bring us a quickly improving Alex Collins for Christmas this year.
5. A Christmas day win.
Lastly, if you’re lucky enough to watch your team play on Christmas Day you have to wish for a Christmas Day win. So Merry Christmas and go Blazers!