What goes down must come up? Out with Mr. Hyde, in with Dr. Jekyll?
Is your head spinning yet?
Mine is!
But I’ve never been this delighted, to be this dizzy. Think teacups in Disneyland but in your formative years. Before adulthood robbed you of your ability to spin around more than once before you needed to sit down.
The very landscape of the NBA was shaken when Luka Doncic was traded from the Dallas Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers. The aftershocks from this astonishing trade are still being felt. Such a thing demands our attention as NBA fans.
While it doesn’t rate as Earth-shaking as the most shocking trade in NBA history, Portland’s dramatic turnaround is shaping up to be the most unlikely in NBA history.
As I just detailed on 1/24, with the Trail Blazers only three games into their current run:
With a win that night vs. the Charlotte Hornets, the Blazers had their longest win streak of the season – 4 games. A couple of nights later, a competitive loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since then, another win streak – 5 games and counting.
There has even been What-If talk that would make Jim Mora proud. The P-word (no, not that one), I’m talking about Playoffs.
But to appreciate how unlikely the Portland Trail Blazers winning 9 of their last 10 really is, let’s rewind the tape a bit, with an assist from Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com:
“Eight games ago [now 10], the idea of the Blazers… reaching the postseason was laughable. They were 13-28 and had just lost eight out of 10, including five in a row by a combined 96 points.”
That averages out to be 19.2 points/loss during this especially woeful 5-game losing streak. Thankfully, there were only “blowouts” (3 – losses by at least 20 points, but less than 30) and no “obliterations” (losses by 30 or more). What a streak it was, though, of the sort that no one ever wants to find in their underwear.
The lack of “obliterations” only mildly surprising, as they had become a specialty of Chauncey Billups’, with 27 to his name. Well, that and Portland having just narrowly missed adding another to their coach’s resume, losing to the LA Clippers by 29.
Things were looking very bleak indeed!
And now …
… they’re not!
So, what in the hell happened? How have the Trail Blazers resurrected their season?
We have questions; John Schuhmann of NBA.com has takeaways:
“It appears that the Blazers are a good team now….
Three takeaways
- The Blazers rank second defensively (104.9 points allowed per 100 possessions) over the 7-1 stretch. Three of the games have come against teams — Charlotte and Orlando (x 2) — that rank in the bottom three offensively, but they also held the Suns (who came in with the 11th-ranked offense) to just 108 points on 103 possessions on Saturday [2/1].
- Their opponents have shot just 29.1% from 3-point range over the eight games, and the Blazers have also held them to just 51.8% shooting in the paint, the third-lowest opponent mark over that stretch.
- The Blazers also rank 10th offensively over these last 15 days, with the last four games (124.4 points scored per 100 possessions) having been their most efficient stretch of the season by a healthy margin. Seven guys have averaged double-figures over the four games, led by Deandre Ayton, who scored 24 points on 11-for-12 shooting against his old team on Saturday.” [A revenge game if there ever was one]
Good, you say? Well, let’s not be too hasty!
I would certainly buy ascending, which is a whole lot better than the death spiral the Portland Trail Blazers were in (a happy New Year, it was not).
They’ve added two more wins since Schuhmann’s analysis. And with this Wx2 (it is tax season, after all) comes updated metrics, courtesy of Jason Quick of The Athletic:
“Since the winning stretch started with a 113-102 win over Chicago on Jan. 19, the Blazers lead the NBA in opponents’ points per game and rank second in the NBA in defensive rating, net rating, and opponent field-goal percentage.”
So, maybe they are good!?
It’s too bad someone who’s been covering Portland for over 25 years cannot provide context for this most unlikely Trail Blazers stretch.
Oh wait, there is!
Jason Quick, back to you:
Good? Fun? Of one thing we can be certain: Toumani Camara is leading this charge; he has fully broken out:
Players know, & so does J-Quick!
Toumani Camara is, once again, a Diamond in the Rough. He’s “The” Aladdin from this season & last. A Defensive Maven last year, he’s now a Maestro!
A[nother]gem from [a]J-Quick… article [Toumani Camara ‘doesn’t give up’: What opponents see in Trail Blazers’ young defender]:
“He is extremely, extremely impressive,” [David] Adelman said. “I think in today’s NBA, with positionless basketball, he has the ability to actually guard (point guard) through (center) and do it at a really high level.”
In Adelmans we trust!
He is Him, a developmental success story on which Chauncey Billups can hang his hat!
Given Toumani’s length (6’7, with a wingspan over 7 feet), strength (229 lbs, without even an ounce of fat on him – there just can’t be if he’s picking point guards up the full court all game long), and defensive versatility, as lauded by Adelman …
… I’m feeling defensive shades of an even smaller school prospect (Camara played his college ball at Dayton)—small as in the University of Central Arkansas (UCA)—the only player to have played in the NBA from UCA, even Scottie Pippen.
Too hot take(ish)? Too hyperbolic? Tell that to Tyrese Haliburton after his 25 minutes of hell!
Look, I’m not saying Toumani Camara is going to be an all-timer, but I do fully expect him to be a perennial All-Defensive Team performer. I am also NOT saying he is just a one-trick pony either, a mere 3-and-D specialist.
Over his last nine games (he missed the win vs. the Miami Heat on 1/21), Toumani has averaged 12.7 pts on 62.3% shooting, including 1.7 3pm on a 3P% of 53.6%, 7.2 reb, 2.1 ast, 1.2 stl, & 0.8 blk. Scintillating when combined with the dominant individual and team defense he’s been playing!
If Camara is the tip of the spear, the conductor of this award-winning Blazer symphony, then Deni Avdija is First Chair. Who knew the Portland Trail Blazers had such a dynamic forward tandem?
Deni, for his part, over his last 10 games, has averaged 17.6 pts on 49.1% shooting, including 1.5 3pm on a 3P% of 29.4%, 7.1 reb, 4.1 reb, & 1.3 stl. He is also tenacious, generally, but especially defensively.
His highs (like a stellar back-to-back against OKC and the Milwaukee Bucks, to the tune of 29 pts, 8.5 rebs, 5 ast, 3.5 3pm, & 1.5 stl) have me thinking I sold him a bit short. I think him being a Tier 3 Player (High-Leverage Starter) is now a foregone conclusion! I also don’t think an All-Star berth or two is out of the realm of possibilities.
If Avdija does become an All-Star, no one is going to care (myself included) about Portland overpaying for him. His acquisition will just be Good, rather than [Not So] Bad.
Chauncey Billups, the Trail Blazers much maligned coach (& I count myself among his maligners), deserves his flowers too, his roses, for finally pushing all the right buttons in the lead up to this most unlikely of turnarounds.
The most obvious of these was benching Shaedon Sharpe prior to the Blazers’ win against the Chicago Bulls, which kicked this all off, as reported by Aaron Fentress.
For the why, Fentress went right to the source:
“’He’s struggled a little bit,’ Billups said. ‘As the head coach, as I’m trying to build and develop these guys, I don’t even believe in playing on one side of the ball. I just can’t allow that. I can’t allow it on my watch. Shae has to get better.’”
My assumption is that something changed for Chauncey, too. I wondered what it was and when it happened. It might have been during his two-game absence, with his team winning both games, during the woebegone five-game losing streak, or at some point in between.
I wanted someone to pick up Billups’ brain about this.
Cue, Jason Quick, mind reader:
Chauncey Billups and the 4 meetings that sparked a Trail Blazers turnaround
While the Trail Blazers love to see an edgy Shaedon Sharpe, they are even better served when their coach is pissed off. And, as J-Quick so astutely explains, this was the flint that started this fire, Billups’s piss and vinegar!
Where this stops, I don’t think anyone knows. But if Portland keeps this up, their rebuild will be right back on track, ahead of schedule, even, ala, the Oklahoma City Thunder, their measuring stick.
Here’s to hoping they resist the urge to Raise The White Flagg, as tantalizing of a prospect as Cooper is.
Good teams, supported by great organizations, make their own luck. What they don’t ever do is blatantly lose. Competing is just too important to how such franchises go about their business. Rather ironically, such an approach is sometimes even rewarded with lottery luck, good juju, it would seem.
I can’t think of a better example of this than the San Antonio Spurs, who won the lottery in 1987 (David Robinson), 1997 (Tim Duncan), and 2023 (Victor Wembanyama).
With the trade deadline upon us and 31 games left to play, we’ll get to see what type of organization Joe Cronin decides the Portland Trail Blazers will be.
