3 things the Portland Trail Blazers must do to make 2022 a better year

We are finally into week 52 of an awful year for the Portland Trail Blazers and humanity as a whole. Here are some resolutions for 2022.

At the start of 2021, we were but a handful of games into a COVID-compressed and slightly shortened post-bubble season and the Portland Trail Blazers stood 2-2. With at least one cancellation — last night’s scheduled matchup with the virus-riddled Brooklyn Nets — there’s no guarantee Portland will play any or all of their three remaining games for the year.

But even a sweep wouldn’t get their 13-19 mark up to .500, and they’ve had just one winning streak of three or more games so far this season — a four-game run in late November. Maybe they can conjure up some holiday spirit again, because this is a team in serious crisis.

The roster has too many carbon copies of the same three players, and rookie coach Chauncey Billups is still tinkering with his rotations almost halfway into the season, although he has had to adjust to a relentless procession of injuries and illnesses.

The defense is a mess and the best and most consistent performances have come from Nassir Little and Ben McLemore and not the superstars at the top of the pay sheet. Jusuf Nurkic and Robert Covington have been erratic, and CJ McCollum has been out since December 4 with a collapsed lung.

Damian Lillard had a terrible start but seems to have righted himself in the absence of his long-time backcourt partner, averaging just under 32 points and 7 assists in the six games he’s played since McCollum’s injury.

We’ve done plenty of coach-firing — and coach replacing — and trade suggesting in this space, so we’ll leave that for another day and suggest three resolutions the Blazers could adopt to help make 2022 a more fruitful year than the one that is mercifully coming to an end.