The Christmas shopping season doesn’t officially kick off until next week, but it’s already abundantly clear what should be on the Portland Trail Blazers’ wish list.
Through 14 games, the Blazers are a bottom-five team defensively, surrendering nearly 123 points per game. That would not necessarily be terrible, if not for the following item on the wish list: consistent three-point shooting. The Blazers are the third-worst team in the league in three-point shooting percentage. What makes that number terrifying is that they are a top-five team in three-point attempts. They can chuck up three-pointers at an impressive rate – they can’t make any of them.
Part of that issue is roster construction: The Blazers don’t have any natural long-range shooters. Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara are comfortable stepping behind the arc, as are Jrue Holiday and Jerami Grant, but it’s not where any of them prefer to operate. Additionally, they need open space to create those shots, and the Blazers’ offense is terrible at creating space.
While the team has moved on from Chauncey Billups, they still haven’t moved on from Billups’s offensive “system.” The team’s offense set-up is incredibly simple, and you’ll see them run it nearly every time down the court: the post comes up to set a high screen at the top of the key for the point guard, the point guard will come off the screen, with the post either rolling to the basket or staying at the three-point line. Meanwhile, none of the wings move. In theory, the point guard’s defender should get caught in the screen, allowing the guard to either drive to the hoop or kick out to a perimeter player as the defense collapses.
The Trail Blazers’ standard offensive set.
At your local YMCA, it’s probably highly effective.
However, NBA teams have scouts, and they know two things: the Trail Blazers currently have only one effective point guard (Holliday), and they also know the Trail Blazers struggle mightily to make three-pointers. Thus, the defense stays in its defensive shell, so the driving point guard goes to the hoop 1-on-3, and if he kicks it out to the three-point line, the opposition simply waits for the Trail Blazers to do what they do 68% of the time: miss.
The Trail Blazers were hoping Holliday would be a good mentor for Scoot Henderson; however, Henderson has missed the entire season to date, and Holliday has missed the past two games, allowing the team to demonstrate what their point guard-driven offense looks like without a point guard. The results were not pretty. On Tuesday, the Phoenix Suns ran them out of the Moda Center with a 127-110 point win, and on Wednesday, they again fell far behind only to rally back and take the lead late before the Bulls hit a walk-off three-pointer to steal the win.
While the Trail Blazers still have a long way to go on fixing their defense and their need for three-point shooting, they have clearly found some building blocks to make those fixes around. Once the team has cleared out Billups’ disastrous influence on their offensive and defensive development, some of their most essential pieces on both ends will be able to thrive. Avdija put up an epic performance against the Bulls. Without a point guard, he had to play the role of first scoring option and distributor, and finished with a triple-double. If the team had any other shooters on the floor with him, his assist total (11) may have doubled. Meanwhile, Donavan Clingan finished with 17 points and a career-high 21 rebounds.
The back-to-back games also gave the team a chance to get Yang Hansen some run. The first-round pick had a career-high 13 minutes against the Suns and finished with a career-high 13 points. Like the Trail Blazers as a whole, he showed flashes of what he was capable of at times, but also that he has a long way to go to be reliable.
Of the players the team had available and fully healthy this week, Avdija, Clingan, Camara, and Yang figure to play the biggest role in the team’s future. Avdija and Camara are both looking like steals in trade acquisitions, and Clingan is looking like a steal in the draft. The jury is still out on Yang, but if nothing else, he figures to thrill Rip City Remix fans for most of this season as he develops. When Holliday returns to the lineup (and hopefully Henderson someday soon), the Trail Blazers will have actual point guards to run their offense. When Jerami Grant and Shaedon Sharpe are both healthy, the team has scoring options. When Damian Lillard returns next season, the team will have an all-time great to provide a veteran presence and even more scoring.
When those players are all on the floor together, the team must find an offensive system that uses their talents and defensive identity to allow them to flourish.
For now, though, both of those last two items remain wishes that need to be fulfilled before they become serious contenders in the West.
Be the first to comment