Portland Trail Blazers: Early season observations

The Portland Trail Blazers have started the season three and two. What can we take away from the first week or so of the season?

It would be irresponsible to judge the Portland Trail Blazers on a sample of just the first two weeks of the season, but there are some interesting trends developing over the first few games.

Defense

The Blazers defense has been porous at the start of the season. Prior to the Thunder game they had conceded 38.4% from the three-point line which ranked them 25th in the league. The perimeter defense is of the biggest concern and will need to be addressed immediately. Though they only conceded four three pointers to the Thunder they will need to be on their game against their stronger conference rivals.

The rim protection has been excellent early on but this may now change with Zach Collins missing at least two if not three games. Hassan Whiteside is more than enough to cover the painted area on his own so potentially going smaller more often may plug the holes on the perimeter in Collins absence.

Silly fouls have also really hurt this team, especially in the close losses. Sending teams to the foul line far too often they are often fouling into the bonus with a lot of time left in quarters. They have let teams get to the line at the 28th worst rate in the league.

The Blazers have the personnel to be a good defensive team, they need to close out accurately and be less aggressive when defending one on one. Kent Bazemore and Rodney Hood are key members of the defensive unit and need to be tougher on opposition wings. By not allowing penetration they can shore up some of the three-point shooting issues.

Three point shooting

Again if we are talking personnel, the Blazers have the guys to be a strong three-point shooting team. All their wings and guards have either shown in their career or recently in preseason that they can shoot the three. Through the first four games Lillard, Bazemore and even Anthony Tolliver have been running at under 35 percent or under from three. The law of averages would have told you that these three would have some hot shooting nights coming up as their shooting regresses back to the average.

This was the case against the Thunder as they hit 17 of 35. Each of the players mentioned above getting a chance to improve their efficiency.

The volume of threes was also a concern prior to the Thunder game. Taking the fourth least threes in the league so far, they seemed to be taking less from downtown because of the lack of success in the first week. CJ McCollum had been their best three-point shooter so far at 39 percent but he had only taken 20 percent of his shots from three. Hood was in the same boat.

It was then pleasing to see in this game to see Hood shooting five threes, hitting two of them and McCollum taking ten while hitting on five of these attempts. Coach Terry Stotts may have taken to look at the offense after the Spurs game and the way that this team was getting their shots. Transition threes were more of a focus tonight, the same with the corners.

After five games the Blazers can be pleased with their progress. They still have some work to do on both ends but can be pleased with their start. After the Collins injury they have adjusted nicely while integrating Tolliver into the starting line-up. If they are to be a playoff team again in the west, they will need to be more accurate on defense while adjusting to the new age NBA which shoots a lot more threes. The Thunder game was a good start, but they will need to show this improvement on a nightly basis.