Portland Trail Blazers: Depth will be tested after injuries to McCollum, Nurkic
The Portland Trail Blazers’ depth will be tested
Nearly a quarter through the 2020-21 NBA season, the Portland Trail Blazers have been one of the more consistent teams in the Western Conference in that second tier of teams. Through 14 games, the Blazers are 8-6 and have a top 10 offense.
They’re a top 8 team in the West and have the look of a team that could emerge as a dark horse playoff team. However, there’s one big thing that could stand in the way of that coming to fruition. And that’s injury.
Unfortunately, the Blazers are already being tested in that department. Over the course of the last week, Portland has lost both CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic to semi-serious injuries – the likes of which that will cost them multiple weeks.
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McCollum was diagnosed with a small hairline fracture in his foot and he’ll be reevaluated in four weeks. This is injury will certainly hurt the Blazers, especially considering how well McCollum was playing. Through the first few games of the season, McCollum was averaging 27 points, five assists, and four rebounds per game on 47 percent shooting from the field and 44 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Additionally, the Blazers will also be without Jusuf Nurkic, who suffered a wrist injury that will force him to miss six weeks. Nurkic was averaging 10 points, eight rebounds, and three assists on 49 percent shooting from the field before going down with the injury.
Losing two starters is not necessarily how any team wants to start the season, even less so considering this is a team that had bright hopes heading into this year’s campaign.
If nothing else, the Blazers are going to find out a lot about themselves over the course of the next few weeks. The team’s depth is going to be tested and the hope is that this team will be able to stay afloat following the lead of Damian Lillard, who has been in this situation time and time again.
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The Blazers likely won’t be full strength again until March. How will this team look like in the time being? It’s really anyone’s guess. We’ll see if their depth can help carry them.