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Portland Trail Blazers: 5 (not so) bold season predictions

By Ryan Gaskin

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - OCTOBER 16: The Portland Trail Blazers hugddle up during a pre-season game against the Utah Jazz on October 16, 2019 at vivint.SmartHome Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - OCTOBER 16: The Portland Trail Blazers hugddle up during a pre-season game against the Utah Jazz on October 16, 2019 at vivint.SmartHome Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /

3. New wings will flourish offensively, but struggle defensively

Al-Farouq Aminu and Maurice Harkless had a lot of flaws. Year after year, the Blazers lined up with a front-court pairing of these two, and every year, Damian Lillard would be double-teamed and sometimes even tripled, because the wings offered little to nothing offensively. Teams would constantly just ignore Aminu and Harkless, leaving Dame’s job almost impossible — offensive possessions regularly become 4 vs. 5 in the playoffs.

Dame was largely shut down in the Denver series, and a big part of why they won was CJ McCollum putting the team on his back. But Rodney Hood was also huge. Hood was an unknown quantity on this Blazers team as he was acquired late in the year, and against the Nuggets, he was given room to operate, and boy did he take advantage. Everyone remembers the dagger in Game 3, but Hood was hitting these shots all series; Portland don’t get past Denver without Hood, because he was the only wing hitting shots.

Portland’s new additions have been built around this problem — Anthony Tolliver and Kent Bazemore are certainly upgrades from beyond the arc. But whilst this solves one postseason problem, it potentially creates another.

Jusuf Nurkic, Zach Collins and Hassan Whiteside will ensure the Blazers won’t have any problems defending the paint this year, but the perimeter defense doesn’t seem as confident. Aminu and Harkless obviously brought something to the table, and that was defense. In some ways they held Dame and CJ back, but in others they helped them flourish — there is no doubt Portland will miss their hustle, especially in the playoffs. Bazemore, Hood, Collins, Hezonja and Tolliver will make up the main forward rotation, and barring some flashes from Baze, I haven’t seen too much indication that they’ll be elite outside defenders.

It was only preseason, true, but the Jazz game Portland actually one threw up some red flags for me. Utah got A LOT of open shots from three, as did the Suns, when they gave the Blazers a beat down a few days before. The issues could be mainly communicative ones, it is a new roster after all, but Terry Stotts should still treat this as an immediate concern. With Nurkic healthy last year, Portland were one of the best defensive teams in the league, and in the postseason it showed. Stotts won’t want to lose this name tag too easily.

82 games is a long time, and this roster has time to work it out, but, don’t be surprised if the Blazers give up a lot of points in the first half of the season. With Andre Iguodala and Alfonzo McKinnie still both free agents, I also wouldn’t be surprised if Portland tried to fill that 15th roster spot with a defensive-minded wing.