Buy or sell: Portland Trail Blazers preseason takeaways
By Andy Quach
Portland Trail Blazers preseason takeaways to sell
1. Portland Trail Blazers will struggle on offense
At times, the offense wasn’t pretty for the Blazers in preseason. Their outside shooting particularly was wayward compared to year’s past — having averaged 26 percent from distance through four games.
This could be a result of either just the offseason layaway or a change in rhythm as a result of the newly installed offensive scheme.
Damian Lillard in particular looked a little uncomfortable without the ball in his hands.
As important as coaching and scheming are, basketball is oftentimes more about the Jimmy’s and Joe’s. Fact of the matter is, the Blazers will be returning all the key parts of one of the most devastating offenses in NBA history.
The shooting numbers will return to the norm, Portland will either become more accustomated to the motion offense or Billups will eventually fold, and the Blazers will return to being the fierce attack they’ve been since Lillard arrived in Rip City.
2. Portland Trail Blazers will be significantly better on defense
As much as Billups may have preached defense in the offseason, and as hard as he tries to sell us on steady improvements throughout the year, the Blazers simply do not have the personnel to succeed on defense in today’s NBA.
The best defenses in this day and age are formed with switchable defenders along the perimeter, with an elite rim protector waiting in the paint behind them. Portland has none of that.
Jusuf Nurkic is a stout defender on the inside, but does not have the verticality or agility to erase all the mistakes that Portland’s perimeter “stoppers” will make. Robert Covington is an elite defender, but he’s more of a free safety-type help defender than an elite one-on-one clamper. That leaves Dame, CJ McCollum, and Norman Powell, two infamously terrible defenders to guard the point of attack and a two-guard who will give up four or five inches to his matchup every game playing out of position at the three.
There’s no amount of scheming that can cover up for the defensive holes in that lineup. Trying to be more aggressive at the point of attack, like the Blazers attempted in the preseason, could actually be more of a detriment to this team. None of the guards can stay in front of their man or navigate around a screen, and Nurkic is simply too slow to chase guards on the perimeter or on drives.
If the Blazers had elite stoppers stashed away on their bench, it would be a different story. Tony Snell and Larry Nance Jr. are both plus defenders in their roles and positions, but neither of them is exactly an answer for the top wing scorers in the league.
With more effort and discipline on defense, Portland has the personnel to be a middle-of-the-road defensive team — which should be more than enough with how great their offense is expected to be. Don’t ever expect this unit to be elite on defense, though.