3 lineups the Portland Trail Blazers should experiment with next season

The Portland Trail Blazers have solidified their roster and the rotations should be fairly predictable, but there are opportunities for Head Coach Chauncey Billups to play around with some different lineups.

One of the many knocks on former coach Terry Stotts is his inflexibility with his lineups. Stotts often refused to let the matchup dictate how he deployed his players, instead opting to believe that the Blazers could force opponents to reconfigure their rotation to counter Portland’s.

We saw firsthand how detrimental that rigidness can be, especially in a seven-game playoff series, as the Blazers fell to an undermanned and lesser Denver Nuggets team in the first-round this past postseason. A key thing to look for in Chauncey Billups’s first year as a head coach is if he’s willing to mix up his rotations and make adjustments according to certain matchups. There’s three specific lineups that we should expect to see from the new coach throughout the course of the regular season.

3 lineups the Portland Trail Blazers should experiment with next season

1. Feature Jusuf Nurkic as an offensive hub

One of the more underutilized aspects of Jusuf Nurkic‘s game is his playmaking ability. While Nurk is skilled enough to stumble upon three-five assists in any given contest, he could be doing a lot more with his court vision.

With Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum on the roster, it makes sense that the Blazers wouldn’t often have the ball in Nurk’s hands. Portland’s star backcourt features two of the best players in the NBA at creating their own shot off the dribble. However, as great as the two guards are at creating offense with the ball in their hands, relying solely on their heroism to get points isn’t a recipe for sustained success.

Eventually, they’ll come across cold nights at the worst possible time. CJ went frigid for nearly the entire Denver series and it cost the Blazers a chance at an extended playoff run. Not only that, but it requires the role players to stay ready with scarce chances to heat up in game. Counting on their shooters to hit open, clutch shots but not giving them opportunities to get in rhythm is counterproductive.

Head Coach Chauncey Billups should try a lineup that will force the ball out of Dame and CJ’s hands for a short time and lean on Jusuf Nurkic’s skills as a playmaker to act as the central hub for their attack.

PG: Anfernee Simons

SG: Norman Powell

SF: Tony Snell

PF: Robert Covington

C: Jusuf Nurkic

This lineup supplies Portland with ample shooting and defense. Without a true primary ballhandler on the court, however, Nurkic will need to create opportunities for his teammates from the low and high-post. He’s more than capable of turning this group into a well-balanced look on both ends of the court.

Norman Powell and Anfernee Simons will also get more opportunities to create for themselves and others as secondary playmakers in this lineup. Both guards can run pick-and-rolls with Nurkic and force defenses into a tough position.

This grouping is perfect for getting Portland’s shooters into rhythm and giving Dame and CJ a breather. This should be deployed late in the third quarter to give the Blazers two star guards time to rest before crunch time. Ideally, Powell, RoCo, Snell and Nurkic would use this time to get hot in the case that they need to make a play down the stretch.