Rip City Project
Fansided

Trail Blazers’ lack of ball movement is becoming more concerning

By Austin Carroll

PORTLAND, OR - DECEMBER 18: CJ McCollum #3 of the Portland Trail Blazers and Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers look on during a game against the Golden State Warriors on December 18, 2019 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon. 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 Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - DECEMBER 18: CJ McCollum #3 of the Portland Trail Blazers and Damian Lillard #0 of the Portland Trail Blazers look on during a game against the Golden State Warriors on December 18, 2019 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon. 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 Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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As the 2019-20 campaign progresses down a rocky road, serious flaws are starting to show up in the Portland Trail Blazers’ offensive schemes.

Injuries aside, there are several reasons the Portland Trail Blazers have underperformed so severely and posted a poor 14-19 record. Last year, this team was able to secure the third seed and advance to the Western Conference Finals even after serious injuries to CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic. For that reason. it’s worth taking a deeper look into what this team is doing wrong instead of waiting for a healthy roster to save the day.

Rip City’s earned a reputation for having a dynamic offense and a less than stellar defense, but that doesn’t mean there’s not areas they could improve on the offensive side of things.

For starters, the Trail Blazers don’t appear to be huge advocates for moving the ball around. When other teams like the Warriors, Raptors, Nuggets and Heat have found so much success in recent memory by ensuring everyone gets their touches, going against the grain seems a bit counterproductive to building a contender.

But when you have two scorers as talented as Damian Lillard and McCollum, can you blame the Blazers for allowing their stars to take over? With a combined 7.6 isolation plays per game, Dame and CJ rank 5th and 13th respectively for most possessions ended with and iso shot or turnover per game.

While Lillard has proved his worth as a superbly talented scorer against single man coverage — coming in the 89th percentile of all qualified players in iso situations — CJ has been average at best (59.1 percentile). When one of Portland’s two stars goes cold, it’s very difficult for this team to squeak out wins.

However, anyone who watches the Trail Blazers’ games can see their losses rarely fall on the shoulders of their backcourt tandem. The supporting cast seems to want to emulate  Lillard and McCollum’s play style, but has struggled to find much success.

The Blazers rank dead last in assists per game, and have been in the bottom ten in each year since 2015. Every year that Terry Stotts has been head coach of this team, they seem to move further and further away from showing a willingness to pass the rock and find open looks for their shooters.

In his defense, Rip City hasn’t always been home to the most exceptional shooters, but the same could not be said of this year. With each passing game we see more possessions ending with Carmelo Anthony or Anfernee Simons chucking up a shot without once looking to get their teammates involved.

If the shots were falling, this would all be excusable, but they’re not. Portland ranks 17th in field goal percentage, which seems right in line with their mediocre record.

Simons in particular seems to be falling well short of the jump many expected to make, as the primary ball handler and distributor behind Lillard off the bench. Despite seeing a much increased role at 21.9 minutes per game, Anfernee has only dished out a meager 1.3 assists per contest.

His performance seems indicative of the attitude across the entire roster, as even players like Kent Bazemore and Hassan Whiteside have dribbled themselves out of possessions and forced bad shots instead of kicking it out and trusting their teammates.

There’s no real reason to hesitate passing either. Despite Anthony Tolliver and Mario Hezonja falling well short of expectations, I’d go so far as to say the team has had more pleasant surprises than duds. Rodney Hood (pre-injury), Gary Trent Jr., and Skal Labissiere have all excelled as spot-up shooters

Next. Hassan Whiteside is struggling for consistency. dark

To put it plainly, Stotts needs to properly read his roster and realize the strengths and weaknesses they carry. It makes no sense to carry on playing selfish basketball if it’s not yielding positive results. Lillard is a true leader willing to do almost anything if it converts into wins, so this change must come from the very top. Let’s wait and see if the Trail Blazers are willing to learn from their competitors, so they don’t fall short yet again.