Portland Trail Blazers: 3 takeaways from 7-game road trip
1. Are we witnessing Portland’s playoff rotation?
Portland is a team known for its continuity. It showed plenty of that with its rotation over the course of this road trip. Head coach Terry Stotts stuck with the same starting lineup and had eight players appear in all seven games. Enes Kanter would have played all seven too, but had to miss the tilt at Toronto due to — put at its simplest — visa issues.
With Stotts holding the same nine-man rotation during the team’s toughest stretch of games, it seems like we’re getting a preview of what he plans to deploy during the playoffs. That would actually be a good thing, as this rotation is arguably the most balanced Portland has been since 2015.
The big question, however, is how — or if — Evan Turner will fit in once he returns? Turner only played eight and 10 minutes in the first and last games of the trip, respectively. He missed the middle games due to left knee issues. Rodney Hood’s arrival already called Turner’s role into question. Now, we’ll see if ET manages to work his way back in, or if Stotts has things just the way he wants them.