Portland Trail Blazers: Neil Olshey’s time may be up, but the damage is done

It’s time to get realistic about the Portland Trail Blazers roster

Don’t get me wrong, there’s little doubt that this iteration of the Portland Trail Blazers is better and deeper than in year’s past.

That being said, unless Portland has some insane injury luck in the playoffs, this team can’t compete with the elite squads in the league, even at their fullest potential.

The Blazers are currently 22nd in defensive rating, giving up 108.7 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. This is a surprisingly strong number, but makes sense when the leaguewide cold spell and early season offensive struggles are taken into account.

Even with those buoys, Portland’s defense on the road has been objectively atrocious, with a staggering defensive rating of 117.1 — which would easily be the worst in the league and the worst in the franchise’s history as far back as BasketballReference tracks.

A lot of this can be chalked up to mental mistakes and lack of effort, but even if the Blazers are buzzing on D, there are obvious weaknesses personnel-wise that can be repeatedly exploited.

Lack of size and defensive potency on the wings cannot be overcome with scheming. Jusuf Nurkic‘s lack of mobility and inability to guard on the perimeter cannot be covered for with a game plan. The entire system that relies on strong help, crisp, constant rotations, and guarding pick-and-rolls at the level will always breakdown with enough ball movement and strong perimeter creation.

As it stands right now, the Blazers defense can certainly be better than it has been. Portland has to improve guarding at the point of attack, be it interior probing from the primary ballhandler one-on-one or against pick-and-rolls. Portland’s perimeter defenders are allowing too much penetration, resulting in overhelping and ensuing kick-outs for wide-open trey balls.

The Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum backcourt cannot work without an absolute defensive eraser behind them, which neither Nurk or Cody Zeller are. The Trail Blazers cannot have both CJ and Nurkic in their starting lineup and expect to be elite on defense, regardless of who the other starters are.

There’s no doubt that the Blazers will improve upon their currently ninth-ranked offensive rating at just 109.5 — 104.9 on the road, which would place 22nd — but their defensive inefficiencies are imprinted in their DNA and cannot be completely fixed without a major roster change. A drastic move might be easier said than done, though.