Portland Trail Blazers: 5 big goals for 2018-19 NBA season

4. Sort out the guard rotation

The Portland Trail Blazers had a relatively quiet offseason. However, one notable thing about it is the influx of guards that the front office brought in. Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr. were brought in on draft night. Seth Curry and Nik Stauskas were signed via free agency. They even added Gary Payton II on a training camp deal. When you add in the returnees, eight of the team’s 18 players are guards.

There are only so many minutes to go around, so the Blazers will have to figure which guards will get them over the course of the season. Starters Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum will get the bulk of the minutes, obviously, but how will the second unit shake out?

It is definitely going to be a fight for much of the season to get backup backcourt time. Rookies Simons and Trent probably have the least pressure out of the bunch to perform right away since both are signed in Rip City long-term. Meanwhile, both Curry and Stauskas are on one-year deals, so they will likely need to produce immediately, for the sake of the Blazers as well as their NBA futures.

Time, scheme fit, injuries and production will be the deciding factors in untangling this mess. Sorting things out sooner rather than later will give the team clarity and help it move toward forming a more cohesive unit on the floor this season.