Portland Trail Blazers: Biggest strengths and weaknesses for 2017-18
Weakness: Lack of backcourt depth
In addition to 50.0 points per game, Lillard and McCollum averaged a combined 70.9 minutes per game in 2016-17.
Both players are willingly, and likely preferably, tasked with heavy minutes. However, they don’t really have an “insurance policy” player whenever one goes down to injury. The backup point guard to Lillard is McCollum; McCollum’s backup was just traded away.
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Shabazz Napier is the only other true point guard on the roster. The 25-year-old has shown flashes of being a solid backup and had his best season last year. However, head coach Terry Stotts only gave him 53 regular season appearances and 9.7 minutes per game. It’s hard to tell if Stotts trusts Napier with extended minutes.
For now, Pat Connaughton is the only other shooting guard on the roster besides McCollum. However, there’s still a few more days before we find out if he will remain a Blazer. The team has until Aug. 31 to determine if they want to pay him the $1.47 million he will be owed.
There is a chance Evan Turner will move down from small forward to backup McCollum. According to Basketball-Reference, Turner played the position 30 percent of the time in his career prior to arriving in Portland. However, he only played 2-guard seven percent of the time in 2016-17.
Those depth chart issues will likely be sorted out by the beginning of the season. They could believe in the players currently on the roster or pick up a talented minimum-contract signing. But for now, it’s dangerous to play your stars so many minutes without a reliable backup.