Portland is 18-16 (8th place in the West) with one game remaining (Friday) before the calendar turns to the new year. Here’s my assessment of how things are going and where 2023 might yield.
The Trail Blazers started with a roar this season and soon became the most surprising and exciting team in the NBA. Chauncey Billups had ten or more players skittering around like happy water bugs, shooting, passing, and rebounding with precision and joyful passion. Then the team hit a bump in the road and looked like it was suffering from Terry Stotts Syndrome.
Billups went to a 6- and 7-man rotation with regulars playing 30-35 minutes a game, night after night, which is a ridiculous pace for the long 82-game NBA season, let alone for 20-30 consecutive contests. Playing hard, fast, and all-out sounds good, but it’s inherently unsustainable. So, we got what we had in the past with Terry Stotts on the sidelines. The Blazers would get ahead in games, blow leads, and then work hard to catch up. And even when they won enough games to make the playoffs, players would be weary and worn out. That’s why using more players, including platooning, would be a boon to this organization.
]How might it look? How about something like Damian Lilliard, Shaedon Sharpe, Josh Hart, Jerami Grant, and Drew Eubanks as starters? The second unit would be Anfernee Simons, Gary Payton Jr., Jabari Walker, Justise Winslow or Trendon Watford, and Jusuf Nurkić, with various combinations as needed.
I know what I just suggested is unlikely to happen, but I think (if implemented) it would make for a more competitive and less weary team.
On the numbers side (I’m a numerologist), I learned that time spent playing and nurturing Walker would be more productive than investing time on Nassir Little. How much of a difference, you ask? It could yield at least three wins on the season and possibly more. The numbers also tell me that Sharpe will be a solid contributor by mid-February and back in the discussion for Rookie of the Year.
Granted, the loss of Dame for a number of games has upset player combinations and the rotation. Still, though, I believe there is enough talent for this team to compete well even when Lilliard is out of the lineup, and that hasn’t happened for the last fifteen or so games. There is a reluctance to let everybody contribute as they could and should.
The team longs for Gary Payton Jr. to be ready. But let’s hope his arrival will not discourage younger players from making the kind of contributions this team needs to be a contender.
