Portland Trail Blazers: Offense Needs To Get Back On Track
The new NBA season hasn’t started off too well for the Portland Trail Blazers. The Trail Blazers had high expectations coming into this season. Not every run-of-the-mill playoff team wins 54 games in an extremely difficult Western Conference.
Naturally, Portland expected to get off the ground running. Instead, the team has tripped over itself to a 1-2 record with losses against the Golden State Warriors and the lowly Sacramento Kings and the team’s only win being against the severely injured Oklahoma City Thunder.
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Clearly, something hasn’t been clicking for Portland in their first two losses, but what exactly has been the problem?
For once, Portland’s offense has been the problem. The team’s defense has been solid as a rock, as they have only allowed 95.7 points per game, good for seventh-best in the league. Their offense, however, has been stagnant. Portland has only averaged 96.7 points per game to start the year.
That’s very low for Portland’s standards. In fact, it’s a whole 10 points less than what they averaged last season. That’s rank 22nd in the league and it’s a mark that absolutely needs to improve going forward.
But why is the Trail Blazers offense in such a sorry state? They kept most of their players from last season, so this horrid pace is definitely not a personnel issue. The Trail Blazers simply have not been moving the ball as well. So far, the team is averaging 21 assists per game, which is 14th in the league.
That’s only down by two from last year’s 23.2 assists per game, but those two assists are the difference between scoring over 100 points per game, or scoring in the mid-90s.
As you probably know, a lot of NBA games are decided by close margins, and two less assists per game is at least four points less and can cost a team in a close match up.
That’s not the only reason the team hasn’t been scoring well. The Trail Blazers are a team that relies on the 3-point shot. As such, they need those shots to fall at a good percentage. That has not been happening so far, as Portland is only shooting 32.9 percent from deep.
That is a solid percentage and it does rank 13th in the league, however it’s down by quite a bit from last season. Last year, the Blazers were top 10 in 3- point percentage, shooting a stellar 37.2 percent from beyond the arc.
It doesn’t help that Portland is ranked third in 3-point shots attempted, as they take a whopping 27.3 3-point shots per game. The Trail Blazers need those shots to fall at a higher percentage. Those shots simply haven’t been as open as they were last season.
The problem has been that Portland is taking their most effective weapon on the low block and putting him further from the basket.
LaMarcus Aldridge was the key to getting defenses to collapse in on the paint and open up the outside jump shot. Last season, Aldridge operated largely within the 3-point line, only taking 0.2 3-pointers per game. Aldridge has been on the outside a bit more to start this year, as he has taken 2 3-point shots per game.
There’s no incentive for defenses to close in on the paint if the team’s best post player is stationed on the perimeter. Portland needs to find a way to get the ball into Aldridge’s hands much closer to the basket.
For Portland to pick up where they left off last year, the team needs to find ways to create open jump shots on the perimeter. The best way to do that is for LaMarcus Aldridge to get the majority of his possessions within 10 feet of the basket. If the Trail Blazers can’t get their offense on track, it’s going to be a long season in Portland.