Portland shuffles supporting cast, but it’s still all about the guards

Storyline 2: Can the defense be passable?

Seldom does this team have trouble creating offense; that side of the ball gets a lot better when Damian Lillard is at the helm. The issue with this team will be on the less glamorous end.

Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu will be missed greatly. The former was playable on both ends and the latter was the Portland Trail Blazers’  defensive linchpin when the rubber met the road. They’ve been replaced by Kent Bazemore (fine), Anthony Tolliver (meh) and Mario Hezonja (eek).

If the Blazers want to contend at a serious level (which they can’t afford not to do), they need a quintet of guys to trust in crunch time. Lillard and CJ McCollum check off two of the five boxes, but the rest are quite shaky.

Bazemore has to be the third; he’s the only proven two-way wing on the roster. Hassan Whiteside is ideal in certain matchups; crunch time and the postseason are different animals that have eaten him alive before and will almost certainly do so again. Tolliver can shoot and has the body to survive in that setting, but hasn’t been an average defender in years.

Nassir Little has awesome defensive upside, but he’s raw as they come. The chance that he’s ready to defend at a high level while not sucking offensively are quite slim, considering how his lone season at North Carolina went.

Zach Collins‘ progression will be interesting to watch; he has the frame and tools to be a switchable, shooting big. Skal Labissiere has similar attributes and is averaging 11.0 rebounds per game this preseason. We’ll see what they’re made of.

Did the Blazers pivot from the losses of Harkless and Aminu with a concession of worse defense in 2019-20? Probably. Do they have experience making distressed assets better? Yes. It’s still fair to doubt.