What Marquese Chriss could bring to the Portland Trail Blazers

What Marquese Chriss can provide for the Portland Trail Blazers: Transition threat

As great as Nurk is and as solid as Zeller can be, not only do neither of them provide any vertical spacing, they’re basically zeros in transition as well.

The two current centers can be counted on for a strong rebound and then a very slow trail that might open up an open lane 6-8 seconds into the shot clock.

What they can’t provide is this:

Watch as Chriss grabs the board, finds the ballhandler, and then beats every defender down the floor for an open dunk.

The Trail Blazers are a notoriously slow team, preferring to bet on Dame and CJ’s ability to slowly break down a defense rather than play with speed. With a player like Chriss, or newly acquire Larry Nance Jr., Portland will have the early option to attack the rim and go back to their primary options if the transition opportunity is taken away.

Having a rim runner like Chriss threaten to tear down the rim on each transition opportunity will leave less defenders weary of Dame or CJ pulling up on the break.

The Blazers finally have the personnel to play up-and-down, but adding Chriss to their final roster will allow them to play much faster and much louder. Here’s hoping that we see some electrifying breaks next season.