3. Develop inside-outside threat
I have to admit that I really love the current makeup of the Portland Trail Blazers roster — namely the core of Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic. While the Blazers were just fine with their one-two punch combo, having a third man — especially, a big man — to do the dirty work inside and force defenses to collapse is exactly what they needed.
And I think that Nurkic certainly proved that when he joined the Blazers in the second half of the season last year. After posting a 23-34 record before the trade deadline, the Blazers ended up going 18-9 after the arrival of the Bosnian Beast.
That being said, I still think Terry Stotts has his work cut out for him. He found a way to successfully integrate Nurkic’s talents in the last half of the season, so now it’s a question of fine-tuning the roster over the course of an entire season — not to mention the postseason.