A few weeks away from the trade deadline, the Portland Trail Blazers find themselves on the outside of the playoff picture and do not seem to have the roster to change that
The Portland Trail Blazers are in trouble.
A year removed from the Western Conference Finals, and an epic buzzer-beater, Portland is now 16-23 and have nestled in the 10th spot in the conference standings.
This is not too surprising. When you consider the injuries to Jusuf Nurkic, Rodney Hood, and Zach Collins, all of whom are important role players, you could make the argument that these losses are simply too much to overcome.
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It would be foolish to solely rely on this argument when you consider the makeup of their current roster. Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum are one of the premier backcourts in the NBA and are able to score at will. The resurrection of Carmelo Anthony has put other teams on notice that he can still play.
After those three players, the rest of the team leaves much to be desired. Hassan Whiteside is a double-double machine, but there is not much to him except for a post-up game. Anfernee Simmons has a heaping load of promising but calling him inconsistent is an understatement.
Despite the injuries and the sporadic play, Portland is in the top half of the league in points per game. That sounds pretty good when you say that and nothing else. However, when you look closely you begin to see the cracks in the wall.
Despite being in the top half in scoring, the Trail Blazers are 20th in the league in field goal percentage, 12th in effective 3-point percentage, and 21st in overall effective field goal percentage. The points are there, but they take a while to add up.
Furthermore, they are second in the league in isolation frequency, so they do not have the ball movement in place that would make for easy baskets. This is obvious when you notice that Lillard is the only player on the team averaging more than four assists per game.
Sure the ball could be passed a little more, but the Blazers have the fourth-fewest turnovers per game so they are at least not wasting any possessions.
The glaring issue is rebounding.
Consider this, opponents score the second-fewest points off turnovers but are tops in the league in most second-chance points allowed. Portland themselves are 29th in the league in opponent rebound percentage. This again would make sense when you see that Whiteside is the only player averaging more than six rebounds per game.
It is very tough to win in the NBA when you are essentially able to shoot once per possession. This is the fate of the Portland Trail Blazers on a nightly basis.
They could go the route of a trade and possibly land Kevin Love, who has expressed interest in joining his hometown team. Would Cleveland want anything that Portland can offer?
We can enjoy Carmelo Anthony’s comeback tour or Damian Lillard pointing at his wrist. It seems like this is all Trail Blazer fans can hope for this season.