3 NBA teams that could use Iman Shumpert

Portland Trail Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers came into the season with big aspirations, but have been absolutely crippled — pardon the term — by injuries. They came into the season without center Jusuf Nurkic, who has no timetable for a return from a gruesome broken leg sustained last March.

Then they lost the team’s new starter at the 4, Zach Collins, for four months to a dislocated left shoulder and the subsequent surgery to stabilize it. Most recently, small forward Rodney Hood went down with a ruptured Achilles early in their loss to the Lakers last Friday and is done for the year (and perhaps the start of 2020-21 as well).

The Blazers have played twice since Hood’s injury, losing by 12 at home to the Thunder on Sunday and blowing out the Knicks in Portland on Tuesday. Thursday night, the Blazers are at Denver before going to Phoenix Monday.

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Kent Bazemore has drawn the starting assignment at the 3 since Hood went down, but the results are spotty at best. Bazemore has scored 13 points with eight rebounds and two assists in 58 minutes over those two games, shooting 4-for-16 overall and 3-of-9 from 3-point range.

Off the bench, Bazemore has averaged 7.4 points and 4.0 rebounds per game while shooting 34.5 percent overall and 33.8 percent on 3.4 triple tries a night, so he has not been stellar in either role.

Bazemore has the reputation of being an above-average defender and Portland is five points per 100 possessions better defensively with him on the floor (109.0 defensive rating when he’s on, 114.0 when he’s off). But the offense is almost 10 points worse with him on (115.3 down to 105.4), making him a net minus-4.9 on the season.

Beyond that at the 3, they have rookie Nassir Little, two-way player Jaylen Hoard or guys more suited to play the 2 because of size limitations in Gary Trent Jr. and Anfernee Simons.

The good news for the Blazers? They are not hard-capped and have an open roster spot, with only 14 guaranteed contracts. The bad news for Portland? They are already $11.34 million over the tax apron, according to Early Bird Rights.

The consolation is that Portland is not subject to the dreaded repeater tax rates, so at its current level over the tax apron, the Blazers would be subject to a tax payment of roughly $28.35 million (250 percent on overages of $10 million to $15 million).

At 10-15, the Trail Blazers are remarkably only 1½ games out of eighth place in the Western Conference, but there are four teams ahead of them (Oklahoma City, Phoenix and Sacramento are all 11-13 and Minnesota is 10-14).

So at some point soon, Portland will have a decision to make over just how hard it wants to pursue a playoff berth this season. If they opt to go for it, Iman Shumpert might be a defensive force for their second unit.