3 Takeaways from Trail Blazers’ Final Scrimmage with Oklahoma City

While the game’s result was less than ideal for the Portland Trail Blazers, here are 3 things that the team can take away from their final scrimmage with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Although there were many positives that arose in the Blazers’ 131-120 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, there were also some concerns. While we saw great overall games from Anfernee Simons, Gary Trent Jr., and Zach Collins, we also saw a Portland Trail Blazers team get rained on by three pointer after three pointer for the third time in as many games this summer.

Don’t get me wrong: the results of these Orlando scrimmage games are quite meaningless, and the Blazers were without Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. However, this pattern of poor perimeter defense is nothing new for this year’s Blazers, and is worth talking about.

Stotts Might Want to Re-Think Defensive Strategy

39.4%. 38.6%. 50%.

Those are the 3-point percentages of the Blazers’ three scrimmage opponents thus far in Orlando. You simply cannot beat good teams by letting them shoot the ball that well from deep. Allowing the Thunder to make 20 three pointers in 40 attempts killed the Blazers in this game, and will continue to kill them if they don’t make a change.

While it is possible that these numbers can be explained by Stotts not wanting to show all of his cards off in scrimmage games, it is more likely that the Blazers are focusing too much on rim protection, and giving up a lot of open looks from three as a result. While we can blame some of the Blazers’ offensive woes on the absences of Lillard and McCollum, we can’t do the same on the defensive end.

My initial feeling is that the team is excited to have Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic’s rim protection back so much so that they are focusing too much on protecting the paint instead of guarding the perimeter.

Even if this is the case, the Blazers need to find a balance between protecting the rim and getting out to shooters before Friday’s showdown against the Memphis Grizzlies. Modern NBA players are simply too consistent from three to give open looks to like the Blazers have been.

Perhaps the Portland Trail Blazers can modify their balance between protecting the rim and guarding the three on a game-to-game basis, depending on their opponent’s personnel. While the rim protecting strategy that we saw today could serve them very well against teams like the Lakers and Sixers, it’ll hurt them just as much against sharp-shooting teams like the Thunder and Rockets.

Carmelo Anthony Should Come Off the Bench

This isn’t an attack on Carmelo Anthony, even in the slightest. Anthony can get an average to slightly above average shot on ANY possession, which is a huge luxury for any team to have. However, getting these shots usually requires an isolation post-up that severely limits the Blazers’ ball movement.

In the Blazers’ starting unit, this post-up shot is very average and doesn’t make defenses work very hard. The team would be far more efficient letting Lillard/McCollum isolate or letting Jusuf Nurkic post up.

With Anthony in the starting lineup, the Blazers are simply taking shots away from Lillard, McCollum, and Nurkic that could easily be had in the second unit. Anthony doesn’t need Lillard’s playmaking to get his shots.

On the other hand, in the Blazers’ bench unit, the same post-up shot from Anthony is a fairly good shot. Since the Blazers don’t have any other bench players that can get their own shots as efficiently as Anthony, they can simply fall back to posting him up when the initial offense fails.

Having Carmelo Anthony going to his signature post-up as your last resort offense is a good option to have for a second unit. The Portland Trail Blazers need to utilize it.

If that isn’t enough reason to convince you that Anthony should come off the bench, it is worth pointing out that Anthony can provide more veteran leadership to the surrounding bench players this way, and that he will likely have his defensive weaknesses exposed a lot less in this role.

The Talent is There for Anfernee Simons

After disappointing showings from Anfernee Simons in the Blazers’ first two scrimmage games, he showed a lot of reason to believe in him tonight. Finishing with 23 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds in this game, Simons finally looked like the player the Portland Trail Blazers hoped he’d be when they drafted him.

While it will be interesting to see whether or not Simons can play this way on a consistent basis, it was refreshing to see him play so controlled and composed for a change.

https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/1288239836546174986?s=20

Rather than deciding what he was going to do with the ball as soon as he caught it, Simons looked to finally be reading and reacting to the defense, taking shots when appropriate and giving the ball up when not.

It’s obvious that Simons has a lot of talent, but whether or not he can continue to make smart decisions on the floor will ultimately decide whether or not he is best suited as a point guard or a shooting guard in today’s NBA. Hopefully we see him perform like he did tonight a few more times this season, or else the Blazers might have to look at signing another backup point guard this summer.

Other Notes:

• Jusuf Nurkic made a few sloppy backdoor passes in this game, similar to how he often did in his first year with the Blazers. I suspect that these were just a sign of rust, and that he will polish up his playmaking a bit more when it counts.
• Hassan Whiteside looked like a huge step down from Jusuf Nurkic on both ends of the floor.
• Zach Collins has looked amazing on offense, both from 3-point range and in the post.
• The Blazers suffered no known significant injuries in these scrimmages. Hooray!

Box Score