Here is a list of five things the Portland Trail Blazers need to do in 2017-18 in order to make the playoffs.
The Portland Trail Blazers failed to make any significant moves over the summer, and now they’ll be heading into the 2017-18 season against a much tougher Western Conference. The Oklahoma City Thunder added Paul George; the Minnesota Timberwolves added Jimmy Butler; and the Houston Rockets added Chris Paul.
However, that’s not to say that the Blazers aren’t capable of improving on last year’s season. While it’s certainly true that Portland didn’t add any big names, they were still able to retain their core, and their supporting cast may surprise a couple teams right out of the gate.
Additionally, the biggest change to Rip City going into the 2017-18 season will likely be centered around the long-term status of Jusuf Nurkic, who will hopefully stay healthy enough throughout the year to make a significant impact in Portland’s postseason efforts.
Along with that, here are five other things that the Portland Trail Blazers need to do in order to secure their place among the Western Conference’s elite and make the NBA Playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.
5. Stay healthy
While this is certainly the most important of the five keys, this is a given for any individual or team in sports, so I decided to just get it out of the way and not make you wait until the last slide to read about it.
That being said, there’s really only one player on the Portland Trail Blazers that everyone hopes to see stay healthy this year, and that’s Jusuf Nurkic. As HoopsHabit’s esteemed Editor-in-Chief, Gerald Bourguet, wrote recently: “we can’t gloss over Nurkic missing 20 games, 60 games and then another 17 games through the first three years of his career.”
Rip City was clearly a much more formidable team with Nurkic on the roster. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and the Portland Trail Blazers cannot afford to have any weak links in their starting lineup if they want to compete in the West.
4. Improve floor spacing
I’ve already written up on this issue a couple times before, but to reiterate: the Portland Trail Blazers posted the sixth-best mark in 3-point shooting percentage, traded away their best 3-point shooter on the wing, and then failed to bring in a player of equal or better shooting ability to replace him.
Considering Maurice Harkless and Evan Turner are expected to fill the vacancy left by Allen Crabbe despite not proving themselves to be great outside shooters, it’s entirely plausible to think that Portland’s 3-point shooting percentage could take a hit this season.
In today’s NBA, many elite teams have relied heavily upon the 3-point shot, revolutionizing the way that the game is viewed, played and analyzed. Simply put: floor spacing is more important than ever, so I sincerely hope that Portland’s trust in their current floor spacers isn’t misplaced.
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.
2. Get more out of the second unit
According to NBA.com, the Portland Trail Blazers bench ranked 19th in plus/minus, posting a -1.0 over the course of the entire regular season. For a playoff team like the Blazers, that’s not a good sign.
As it stands right now, Portland has Shabazz Napier as their backup point guard; Pat Connaughton as their backup shooting guard; Evan Turner and Jake Layman splitting duties at small forward; Ed Davis, Caleb Swanigan and Noah Vonleh at power forward; and Meyers Leonard and Zach Collins manning the center position.
If the Blazers wish to compete in the West, their second unit is going to have to be able to, at the very least, keep the status quo and not give up any ground. None of those names really jumps out at you as a possible Sixth Man of the Year candidate, but on the bright side, they are all relatively young and steadily improving.
1. Improve defensively
I’ve said it plenty of times before, and I’ll say it again: there is nothing wrong with Portland’s interior defense; there is something seriously wrong with Portland’s perimeter defense.
Per NBA.com, the Blazers ranked 25th in opponent points scored in the regular season, allowing 108.5 points per game. Much of the reason behind that is because they also ranked 27th in opponent 3-point percentage, allowing teams to shoot 37.0 percent from behind the arc.
Such is the reason why I suggested trades involving Paul George, Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthony, with the latter two trades including Iman Shumpert and Trevor Ariza, respectively.
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The Blazers have a great offensive system, but defense wins championships. If they can improve immensely on that side of the floor, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the Western Conference Finals.