The Portland Trail Blazers finished the season with a 21-61 record, the worst in the Western Conference, and tied with the Charlotte Hornets for the third-worst record in the association. After a disappointing season, it's apparent that General Manager Joe Cronin has multiple roster construction holes to fill.
The good news for the Blazers front office and fans is that there's no pressure to fix these glaring needs anytime soon. It would be wiser to avoid rushing into a win-now mode to try and compete for a spot in the play-in tournament.
Instead, they should build a roster with pieces that complement each other organically through the draft. The Oklahoma City Thunder are the obvious example of flawlessly executing this strategy. They were patient in their rebuilding process and targeted players who improved their team chemistry and played their respective roles exceptionally well.
3. Positional size
The Blazers' lack of positional size has been a weakness dating back to the Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum era, and they have yet to do much to address it since. Their promising young guards, Anfernee Simons and Scoot Henderson, are 6-foot-3. Meanwhile, their other rising star, Shaedon Sharpe, is better suited to play shooting guard at 6-foot-5, 205 pounds, rather than the small forward position he plays at times.
The NBA has embraced this new era of positionless basketball. However, the three players with arguably the highest upside on the Blazers' roster are undersized if they all play together. As the Blazers look towards the future, head coach Chauncey Billups' best lineup may be playing only two of Henderson, Simons, and Sharpe at a time.
Regardless, Portland must continue finding more positional size to improve their defense. The Blazers finished last season with the eighth-worst defensive rating in the league, at 116.6, surrendering an average of 115.4 points per game to opponents.
Given the current state of the Western Conference, addressing the need for positional size should be a main priority for the Blazers. Superstar players such as Luka Doncic are constantly hunting for mismatches, seemingly now more than ever, trying to get the optimal switch in a pick-and-roll to take advantage in an isolation situation.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are a prime example of a team that has gone on a playoff run and has excellent length at every position, contributing to their league-leading defensive rating of 108.4. Timberwolves General Manager Tim Connelly did a superb job constructing the defending NBA Champion Denver Nuggets' roster, then went to Minnesota to build an exceptionally well-equipped roster to counter the Nuggets' strengths.
The Blazers can increase their odds of eventually having playoff success in the loaded Western Conference by emulating a similar formula.
2. Two-way forward
The Blazers have done a solid job acquiring defensive-minded wings, such as the pleasantly surprising rookie Toumani Camara and two-time NBA All-Defensive Second Team Matisse Thybulle. Although both are great role pieces that Billups can utilize in specific situations, they aren't offensive weapons and are too one-dimensional.
To their credit, both were only about two percentage points below the league average three-point shooting for small forwards, which was 36.2 this past season. But, in an ideal scenario, Portland would have another wing or two that could defend multiple positions while also being able to do a bit of offensive orchestrating to take the pressure off their young guards.
Additionally, forward Jerami Grant is 30 years old. He isn't part of the future core, as he will be out of his prime by the time the Blazers timeline is ready to contend. Considering that, the Blazers' core moving forward could be some combination of Henderson, Simons, and Shapre as the one and two guards, with Ayton and Robert Williams securing the center position. Both forward positions are up for grabs, assuming the three guards can't effectively play alongside one another.
Finding someone who can do a little bit of everything - defend multiple positions, rebound, space the floor, create his shot, etc. - will be a key for the Blazers in the future. This player archetype doesn't have to be elite at one particular skill; he has to be well-rounded enough to be a threat on both ends of the floor as a complementary piece.
Multiple options fit this mold in the upcoming NBA draft. Some possible draft options that Portland could target include French wings Zaccharie Risacher and Tidjane Salaun and Colorado's Cody Williams. Of course, they could always go the G League Ignite route again with Ron Holland or Matas Buzelis. The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor has the Blazers selecting Buzelis No. 4 overall and Baylor guard Ja'Kobe Walter at pick No. 14 in his latest 2024 NBA mock draft.
1. Shooting
Suppose Henderson, Simons, and Sharpe can't complement each other on the court at the same time. In that case, Simons could eventually be on the move. Veteran beat reporter Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report shared a quote emphasizing Simons' desire to win heading into what is somehow already his seventh season.
Anfernee Simons: "We don't want to have another year like this. My sixth year is done now, going into year seven, I want to have the opportunity to win."
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) April 15, 2024
Understandably so, but Simons may be disappointed if he expects this roster to become a playoff contender anytime soon, especially with formidable Western Conference teams like the Warriors and Kings not even making the playoffs. Since Joe Cronin decided not to pull strings to go all-in with Lillard last offseason, how he handles the situation with Simons likely won't be any different.
Even if the Blazers' best shooter stays with the team for the long haul, they still need to become drastically better at spacing the floor. This past season, they were dead last in the league in three-point efficiency at 34.4 percent. The two highest-percent shooters from three are Malcolm Brogdon and Jerami Grant, both veterans who could be on the move as soon as this summer.
Meanwhile, potential franchise building blocks in Henderson and Sharpe only connected from deep at 32.5 and 33.3 percent, respectively. While neither is known to be a great shooter at this stage in their careers, both have showcased flashes of their All-Star upside. Specifically, Henderson's post-All-Star break run this season and Sharpe's end-of-season stretch the year prior.
In the 19 games following the All-Star break, Henderson saw an increase in almost every statistical category, averaging 16.6 points, 7.1 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.3 steals on 40/35/82 shooting splits.
Sharpe's increase in productivity was a combination of his development and his increased opportunity to be a focal point of the offense, with Damian Lillard sitting out for the remainder of the season. Albeit a small sample size, his best run was last April, where Sharpe posted All-Star caliber numbers, averaging 22.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 0.8 steals per game.
Henderson and Sharpe have shown enough in their early careers for the Blazers to consider their strengths and weaknesses as members of their core moving forward. Since neither player is an elite shooter and relies on their athleticism and ability to drive to create opportunities for themselves and their teammates, the Blazers must find pieces that can optimize their skill sets by spacing the floor.
Additionally, it will give the front office more flexibility to move pieces such as Grant, Brogdon, or even Simons, as the players currently most involved in trade rumors also happen to be their best shooters.
Bonus points if the shooters check all the boxes with their positional size and two-way prowess.