Portland Trail Blazers: Whats driving offenses in 2019?

Each new NBA season teams either redesign their offense, stick to what worked the previous year or just follow what every one else is doing. Individual personnel, injuries and opposition dictate how a team functions on offense also. How do the Portland Trail Blazers fit into league wide trends so far?

The NBA is an offense driven league, though there are great defensive teams and great defenders, don’t be fooled. This league is driven by offense, first and foremost. The three-point explosion still hasn’t reached its peak while ‘ iso ball ‘ is also prominent. Cheat codes like James Harden and Anthony Davis exist to get to the line ten times a night while Andre Drummond and Steven Adams give their times extra possessions by grabbing a mind numbing five offensive boards a night. The Portland Trail Blazers dance to their own tune and have for a while now, but where do they fit into where the league is going offensively?

Points per game

Through the first two weeks of the season the average points per game are actually down slightly from last year. League average is 110 points per game so far down from 111 last year. The Blazers are pretty close to league average so far this season at 111 a game, but this is down from 114 last year reflecting their mixed start to the season. This team had a top six offense last year and its likely that they return to the top echelons of offensive teams after a month or two of the season.

Three pointers

Though it may seem like teams are going back to playing bigger line-ups, the three-point revolution has shown no sign of slowing down. Last season teams attempted an average of 32 attempts a game, this season it’s already up to 33.8. This extra volume has come at a slight compromise in efficiency as league average has dropped from 35.5 to 34.8. The Blazers were under league average at thirty a game last season and have kept the same number of attempts this year, meaning they are running a fair way behind the league now. Though they have great shooters on the team still, the loss of Al-Faroq Aminu, Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard meant their three-point volume may be affected. It took a few games for the other team members to pick up the slack but the last game or two Rodney Hood and CJ McCollum have both increased their volume.

Free Throws

Much gets made of James Harden and his twenty plus attempts in some games. This brand of basketball may not be fun to watch but its effective. Damian Lillard is also one of the greatest exponents at getting to the free throw line and ranks third in made free throws to start the season. The Blazers offense is geared towards Lillard to succeed but unfortunately he is usually the only Blazer getting to the line. Kent Bazemore and Hassan Whiteside will hopefully improve the volume of free throw attempts but currently they are ranked 18th in the league at 24 attempts a night. Though no one may want to see a player go to the line twenty times a night, this is an effective way to score. On a league level free throw attempts per team have increased from 23.1 to 24.8 per game this season.

The Portland Trail Blazers can be encouraged by their mixed start to the season, being slightly behind in a lot of league trends while still being three and two is a good sign. Though they have work to do they aren’t far off the pace. When this offense starts to hum, expect them to be a top five offense in the league.