Trail Blazers: What the rotation should look like when play resumes

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts has a lot to sort out in terms of his rotation before the 2019-20 NBA season resumes in late July.

Last week, the NBA’s Board of Governors approved the league’s 22-team proposal that will see the currently-suspended season restart in Orlando at Walt Disney World in late July. The report confirmed that the Portland Trail Blazers will have a chance to compete for the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference in a play-in tournament.

Though Portland was the only team that didn’t approve of the proposed blueprint, being given the opportunity to qualify for the playoffs is all that matters to point guard Damian Lillard, who threatened to sit out the remainder of the campaign if the Blazers were forced to play meaningless games.

Now that the resumption of the Blazers’ season has been established, it’s time for head coach Terry Stotts to sweat out attacking a roster conundrum that’s been presented with the long-awaited returns of big men Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins. This means that the Blazers roster will be almost fully healthy for the first time this year. Only wing Rodney Hood, who tore his Achilles back in December, won’t feature when play resumes.

Who’s in for the Blazers?

In the months leading up to when the campaign was put on hold in mid-March, Stotts was rolling out a starting lineup of Lillard, CJ McCollum, Trevor Ariza, Carmelo Anthony and Hassan Whiteside.

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While the star backcourt can obviously be penciled into the starting five, it’s really up for debate who could fill out the remaining three spots in the rotation. Will Stotts choose to ease Nurkic and Collins back into things? Or will he throw them into a playoff atmosphere for their first action of the season from the get-go?

Both players will likely have a minutes restriction, so there will be plenty of playing time to go around. That’s a given. What isn’t as clear is how Stotts plans to divvy up the minutes. In our eyes, the Blazers should convert Whiteside to a bench player. The rapport that Nurkic and Lillard showcase in the pick-and-roll set cannot be understated. We’d even go as far as to say that it’s among the best in the NBA.

While Whiteside has improved in that aspect in his first season with the team, he’s just not as free-flowing as the Bosnian Beast. The former Miami Heat standout will still see plenty of minutes due to Nurkic’s minutes limit and hopefully his move to the pine won’t rattle him.

That’s not even to say that the two 7-foot giants couldn’t share the court together, either. It might even be required given Portland’s glaring lack of depth in the frontcourt and Collins’ tendency to get into quick foul trouble.

On the outside looking in

This brings us to the final debate: Ariza or Anthony? Neither player is considered a marksman, but both will command respect from defenders on the perimeter. This season, the former is shooting a notable 37.2 percent on threes, and the latter boasts an equally-impressive 37.1 percent clip from deep.

In the Trail Blazers offense, both veterans are better served as catch-and-shoot players, and Ariza will unequivocally fulfill that role more fluidly than Anthony — who loves isolation, touches in the post and dribbling the air out of the ball.

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The 10-time All-Star coming off the bench would only free up more space for Lillard, McCollum and Nurkic to go to work.

There’s also the fact that Ariza, despite being 34 years old, is still an elite wing defender. It doesn’t take a basketball savant to know that Anthony leaves A LOT to be desired on that end of the floor. Likewise, Lillard and McCollum are also second-rate defenders. Having Ariza, Collins and Nurkic in the starting five will help account for their deficiencies, and, in turn, will give the Blazers the best shot at winning games.

Perhaps just as important is the fact that a move to the bench would benefit Anthony. Not only were a chunk of his minutes this year played alongside the second unit, but him playing against opposition reserves will help him realize what’s left of his potential. That’s to say nothing of how his veteran experience and adroitness will benefit youngsters like Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr.

Depth and little else

Speaking of which, the return of Nurkic and Collins, barring crippling foul trouble, will all but remove the likes of Mario Hezonja, Nassir Little and Caleb Swanigan from the rotation. With all due respect, they shouldn’t see the floor unless Portland is up big, getting blown out, or needs to foul and can’t afford one of their regulars to commit another.

If Stotts plays his cards right, he could have all of Nurkic, Collins, Ariza, Whiteside, and Anthony come close to eclipsing the 25-minute per game mark. That’s really all that fans in Rip City could ask for. Deploying a nine-man rotation that consists of Lillard, McCollum, Nurkic, Collins, Ariza, Whiteside, Anthony, Trent Jr., and Simons in the eight-game pre-playoff slate would have Portland in pole position to nab the No. 8 seed in the West.