Portland Trail Blazers: 3 takeaways from the season-opening loss to the Utah Jazz

No. 1: The defensive 3-point struggles in the preseason weren’t an aberration

Because of its efficiency on a per possession basis, seeing the Trail Blazers allowing 47.3 3-point attempts during the exhibition games was always going to be a concern. For Portland, the highlight of the offseason came in their adding a few reinforcements to make those shots more difficult for opponents.

But until the entire team makes a concerted effort to stop it, teams are showing that they will both take and make shots from distance in abundance.

Perhaps Lamar Hurd said it best during the broadcast: this was quite possibly the worst season to be installing wholly new defensive schemes, being a shortened offseason and all.

But a lot of the Blazers’ defensive struggles, as they were last season, boiled down to effort.

You can add whomever you want to a team. But if players aren’t closing out with effort and poise? (Which they weren’t). And subsequently, if defensive rotations and help defense aren’t sound? (Which they weren’t).

If that’s the case, you can throw wingspan and athleticism out of the window.

Just for illustration, watch the rotations and closeout effort in this clip.

Far too often, Terry Stotts and the Blazers reverted to their drop coverage, relying on guards to just chase over screens, or the occasional hedge.

Utah used that daylight to either: a) get off-dribble looks, or b) swing the ball around against a discombobulated Blazers defense, or c) miss and take advantage of Portland’s effort and snag rebounds. Most often, it felt like we got A.

We’ve got five games worth of tape on these Blazers. It’s probably too early to overreact — they’ve seen the Nuggets and Jazz, two teams known for pick-and-roll success and 3-point accuracy.

And the Blazers at least showed some potential when they brought their bigs higher. But thinking bigger picture, it shows that things are far from copacetic in Portland as we speak.