Why Portland Trail Blazers Have NBA's Best Starting Five

The Portland Trail Blazers have found themselves in a relatively nice spot in the Western Conference standings heading into the All-Star break.

Being the third-best team in the conference at 36-17 isn’t a bad place to be when talking about competing in the toughest conference the NBA has seen in quite some time, with two maybe even three teams that may finish better than .500 and not make the playoffs.

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So the Trail Blazers have been successful early, but how have they done it? And is this pattern of winning sustainable for this particular team?

It’s too early to tell whether this team will be able to rack up series wins in the postseason just because of how much quality depth the West has right now, but the Trail Blazers go into games every night boasting the league’s most balanced starting five when healthy.

Portland doesn’t get much from its bench, and that’s ok. Anytime you can put together a starting five as prolific as the Trail Blazers have, bench play still matters, but it begins to become less and less of a priority.

And it’s not like the Blazers don’t have anyone that can contribute off the bench. Steve Blake and Chris Kaman are two veteran players who have been in big-game situations before and have come out on the winning side.

Young guns like C.J. McCollum and Meyers Leonard have shown plenty of promise throughout the season and figure to only keep getting better, so coach Terry Stotts’ offense generally goes about nine deep when the team is healthy, which is fine considering when the playoffs start no team is generally running a rotation with more than nine players, unless you’re the San Antonio Spurs and you’re just that crazy deep to begin with.

However, not even the Spurs can say they have as quality of a starting lineup as the Trail Blazers anymore.

Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge are on the All-Star team for a reason. These two may be the pieces to the best two-man game the league has to offer. Aldridge is the perfect pick-and-pop forward because of just how lethal he is in the mid-range.

Aldridge has been known for years to be automatic all the way out to about 16 feet, but now he has even extended his shooting stroke out past the three-point line, making him a dangerous partner for Lillard to operate with. When you factor in his improvements rebounding the ball and playing defense, Aldridge has become one of the most complete big men in the NBA.

And speaking of Lillard, this man is just an absolute killer. No one wants to go up against Lillard in crunch time because his demeanor and attitude are very tough to deal with late in games. No player wants the game-winning shot more than Lillard right now, and he isn’t afraid of any defense one bit because of how good of a scorer he truly is.

Lillard has near unlimited range on his jump shot. Lillard’s shooting may be overshadowed a little bit by the Golden State Warriors‘ Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, but Lillard is right there with them in terms of how many three-point shots he’s actually knocking down.

Whether it’s spotting up from deep, stepping back or curling off of screens set by Aldridge or Robin Lopez, Lillard can hit any kind of deep or mid-range shot the defense throws at him, making him one of the most versatile jump shooters in the game.

Feb 11, 2015; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) reacts after a dunk against the Los Angeles Lakers during the third quarter at the Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Craig Mitchelldyer-USA TODAY Sports /

When getting to the rim, Lillard is an explosive finisher, as he seems to have made it his goal to dunk over as many people as possible lately. Dunking the basketball or creatively laying the ball in the basket is no problem for Lillard, meaning there are very little ways to stop him from putting points on the board.

Lillard could continue to improve his passing and look to see plays for others develop on the court a little better, but he’s still averaging 6.3 assists per game, so it’s not like he’s a ball-hog on offense or anything like that.

And keep in mind, Lillard is only 24 years old, so as he spends more time in the league, Lillard will continue to recognize more defensive sets and get better at looking for his teammates in certain situations as opposed to forcing his own shot more often.

When looking at the rest of the Blazers’ starting unit, Wesley Matthews and Nicholas Batum are solid wing players who know how to get the job done on both ends of the floor. In fact, both of them actually made names for themselves on defense before they developed their offensive games to respectable levels.

Having two players on the perimeter that want to play defense against some of the best players in the game never hurts, and when they can develop on offense, well that’s just icing on the cake.

Matthews has become arguably as great of a three-point shooter as Lillard and the “splash brothers” have. He’s hitting those shots at a 39.8 percent clip this season, and that’s no coincidence. Matthews is a legitimate threat from downtown, and so is his teammate Batum, who is a career 35.9 percent shooter from deep himself.

Combined with their ability to cut to the rim and finish, these two have turned into well-rounded offensive weapons for Stotts to game plan with.

The last but not least player in the rotation Lopez knows how to lockdown the post like very few can in the NBA. Lopez is a rim protector of the highest order, as he just knows how to play defense well, be it sticking to his man or switching and helping another man out. Lopez never stays in one place too long, as he is always looking to make an impact.

Lopez has even switched out on the perimeter and blocked shots there on occasion, meaning there’s no limit to how important his contributions are on that end of the floor. He may not be the most developed player offensively, but he always seems to be in the right place at the right time, looking for finishes off of the pick-and-roll and running into offensive rebounds that lead to easy put backs.

Lopez may not be a back-to-the-basket scorer necessarily, but his nose for finishing plays along with his occasional jump shot that stretches to about 12 feet from the basket make him a passable weapon on that end of the floor that can gel with the rest of his team just fine.

Most importantly, these five guys love playing with each other, and are so versatile that coach Stotts can come up with any kind of play he wants. Isolation scoring? No problem, as Aldridge and Lillard are as good as they can. Want to run some back-door cuts? Matthews and Batum have you covered. Pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop? Aldridge and Lopez run those plays in their sleep.

Not many offenses can run all of these plays well, a big reason why the Atlanta Hawks have succeeded this season because they are as versatile if not more than the Trail Blazers on both ends of the floor.

The Blazers may not be ten men deep in their rotation, but that’s ok because their starting five knows how to get the job done. Portland is a legitimate contender in the West. Believe me, this team won’t let anyone forget about it either.

*Statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference.

Next: Will Aldridge's Injury Hurt Blazers' Title Run?

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Why Portland Trail Blazers Have NBA’s Best Starting Five

By Nathan Grubel | Feb 12, 2015

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