Aside from a clean bill of health, what else does this Portland Trail Blazers roster need? My suggestion: a veteran point guard.
With the NBA still on pause, it’s difficult not to look ahead to next season, especially given the Portland Trail Blazers current position in the standings.
However, despite Portland’s dreary season, one thing does stick out when examining the current roster. If you count Jusuf Nurkic, Zach Collins (when next season eventually starts) all as healthy, the Blazers are actually extremely deep, and seem to have a pretty potent playoff roster.
A starting 5 of Dame, CJ, Hood, Collins and Nurk, with guys like Ariza, Gary Trent Jr, Whiteside and Melo coming off the bench? Provided the Blazers choose to bring these players back, they’d be in pretty great shape to attack the 20/21 season. For me though, one thing is missing.
What this Blazers roster really needs, is a back-up point guard, preferably one who carries some experience. Without Dame and CJ on the floor, the Blazers often look lost, and struggle to score the ball. Anfernee Simons is currently the back up point guard, and while the Blazers retain high hopes for him, it doesn’t look like he’ll ever be a distributor, never mind a plus defender.
Simons has the potential to be an explosive scorer, but I don’t see the Blazers going too far while looking to Simons to create shots for others. This team needs a veteran PG, who can play high IQ basketball, and hold his own on the defensive end.
Evan Turner was no stranger to criticism in his time in Portland, but he played a very important role in that WCF run last year, and his defense and distribution has been sorely missed this year. ET could run the second unit without Dame and CJ out there, and also played some minutes at the ‘point forward’ position, which allowed Lillard and McCollum to play off-ball.
- Perfect example here. Good defense in breaking up the lob, brings the ball up the floor and finds Seth Curry on an open three.
- And again. Dame and CJ both play off ball, Dame attracts some attention in the corner, which leaves the backdoor cut open for CJ. ET knows his role, makes the play.
So, who’s available? With the Blazers likely looking to bring back Whiteside and Carmelo, they’ll probably only have the cap space to sign one player. I think the main target will be a lengthy, 3 & D guy, given the current defensive struggles, and lack of strong wings. Unless they manage to pick someone of this calibre up in the draft (or Nassir Little makes a nice little leap, which he DOES have in him), then the Blazers will most likely be looking at free agency for a veteran guard.