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Three Portland Trail Blazers with most to prove at NBA Disney

By Stevie Cozens

PORTLAND, OREGON - FEBRUARY 06: Zach Collins #33 of the Portland Trail Blazers looks on prior to taking on the San Antonio Spurs at Moda Center on February 06, 2020 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. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OREGON - FEBRUARY 06: Zach Collins #33 of the Portland Trail Blazers looks on prior to taking on the San Antonio Spurs at Moda Center on February 06, 2020 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. (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /
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The Portland Trail Blazers have a chance to right the ship by making a run when the NBA returns. Which three players have the most to prove in Orlando?

The NBA recently announced that they would be restarting the season in Disney World Orlando in July. For the Portland Trail Blazers, this means a chance to potentially get into the playoffs if they can either make up the ground to the eight-seed, or get close enough to get the play-in tournament going.

The Blazers are probably the team with the most to gain from this return to play. With the return from injury of two of their big men in Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic, the Blazers may be the most dangerous team in the quick seven to nine game finish to the regular season.

Which three Blazers have the most to prove when the NBA comes back?

CJ McCollum

CJ McCollum hasn’t exactly had a bad season, but as the second best player on this team, he hasn’t had the overwhelming season that was required from him with the injuries to key players. His free throw rate and free throw shooting have been at career lows this season, which is a concern, but he has the chance to finish the season with a bang now.

McCollum may not have had his best season, but what happens when the NBA returns is the most important thing for him. We saw how McCollum thrived in the pressure cooker of the 2019 playoffs, with two of the biggest games of his life against the Denver Nuggets.

He has shown in the past that when the pressure is on that he can step up, or put the team on his back if his teammates are cold.

As a senior player McCollum needs to have a massive finish to this season to help elevate his team to the playoffs.

Jusuf Nurkic

Big man Jusuf Nurkic will return from a 12-month-plus injury layoff to play in the regular season finish. Though he will probably take a few games to get into NBA game fitness, the main thing that Nurk has to prove is that he can be back on an NBA floor.

No one is expecting 20 point – 20 rebounds games after he has missed a whole year, but there is a weight of expectation on him to get through NBA minutes unscathed, and show he has recovered from the terrible broken leg he suffered prior to the 2019 playoffs.

Nurk is lucky, that he has a starting center on the Blazers roster in Hassan Whiteside who he can share minutes with, enabling him to ease into playing competitive ball again. With Zach Collins also returning, there won’t be any pressure on Nurk to play major minutes until he’s deemed ready by Coach Terry Stotts.

Zach Collins

Without a doubt, young big man Zach Collins has the most to prove of any of the players on the Blazers roster. After only averaging 17 minutes a game in his second season, then having the odd big game in the 2019 playoffs, Collins was primed to breakout this season as the starting power forward before he was struck down by injury in the first week of the season.

Season three is usually a big one for young players, especially guys that come into the league at age 18 or 19 as one and done’s in college. Collins is still just 22, but with so much skill and promise he can play a major role right away for this team.

It was well documented how he worked on his mental skills with such a long layoff so it will be exciting to see how he has matured mentally as well.

With Carmelo Anthony playing the four basically all season for this team, they now have an option to play Collins alongside Melo on bench units, or bring Melo off the bench if Collins gets up to speed quickly. It’s pretty exciting to think about a Nurkic / Collins front court even if it will only be for limited minutes.

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These three players form a large part of the core that makes this team so good. When they fit in around Damian Lillard and the breaking out Gary Trent Jr, this team now has a squad that can play both sides of the ball. This definitely isn’t something they could say before the hiatus, as they had one of the worst defenses in the league.

The Blazers have a chance to put an imprint on this return and cement their place in the postseason. There will be tough games to play with all of the teams not in touch with the top 16 now eliminated from contention, but with the return of Collins and Nurkic, theres no reason that they can’t upset some of the more fancied West teams.