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

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Portland Trail Blazers, Jusuf Nurkic, Robert Covington, Larry Nance Jr., Reggie Jackson, Los Angeles Clippers (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images) /

This team is too talented to be 27th in the league in anything

Yet there they sit, three spots from the bottom of the NBA in defensive rating. And we’ll need all of our fingers to point at those who are to blame.

We can start with the not-so-dearly departed Neil Olshey, who put together a roster heavy on the three-point shooting, but light on just about everything else. We can point out how the shuffling, bumbling Nurkic and Covington have lost a step and their man-on-man guarding ability.

We can note that — in violation of the old adage about insanity being defined as doing the same thing over and over in the face of a consistent result — the two big men have run out on approximately 98 percent of opponents’ high screens and have been beaten to the basket 100 percent of those times.

It’s doubtful they’re doing this on their own. And if they are, it’s the coach’s duty to pull them and do some screaming. Billups has done zero correcting and almost no screaming, so this is on him.

If this continues, my next step will be to raise money for a “STOP RUNNING OUT ON SCREENS. IT’S NOT WORKING” billboard outside Moda Center with a picture of Nurkic and Covington in neck braces.

Maybe I can spring for a radio ad begging for Dillon Brooks, or Myles Turner, or Jerami Grant.