I\u2019m not a superstitious person, but when it comes to the Portland Trail Blazers and their decades old injury curse, I\u2019m considerably stitious. It has robbed the team of three different potential dynasties, destroyed eras, seasons, and careers.<\/p>\n
The Curse has famously been represented by a hydra, made of the collective knees of Bill Walton, Sam Bowie, and Greg Oden. The Three Titans of Torture if you will. This hex has plagued important big men throughout Blazers history, ranging from Arvydas Sabonis to Joel Pryzbilla to Jusuf Nurkic. The Curse traditionally likes to troll us sometimes too. Perhaps in the form of Chris Dudley free throws, Raef LaFrentz and his expiring contract, or The Hassan Whiteside & DominAyton Experiences.<\/p>\n
Robert Williams III has been holding up his end of the bargain on the current squad, by playing in just 37 of the past 182 games. However, The Curse has shapeshifted this season and wiped out ALL 6 of Portland\u2019s standard contract guards.<\/p>\n
Rewind a couple months before training camp opened, and there was a lot of optimism towards competing for a playoff spot for the first time in 5 years. Every guard not named Damian Lillard was ready to roll. Then BOOM!<\/p>\n
Scoot Henderson tears a hamstring muscle with an original timeline of being out 4-8 weeks. Last week, we passed the 8 week mark with news that he\u2019ll be re-evaluated in 2-4 weeks. He\u2019s still far away from being cleared to even participate in 5 on 5 drills. We\u2019re going to be lucky if Scoot is able to play half of the games this regular season. Let\u2019s not be naive and think there won\u2019t be setbacks after his return, based on his recent history of leg issues. This is a vital year for him to show he deserves to be a major part of this rebuild, and time is of the essence.<\/p>\n
Unless he comes in with rust and absolutely balls out, the organization is going to be faced with the same uncertainty about him. Henderson missed 20 games his rookie year, and 16 last season. In 2022, playing for the G League Ignite, Scoot missed 9 games with a right ankle sprain and bone bruise (the same injury and time missed as a Blazers rookie.) He missed another 8 games with an abductor injury. That\u2019s 17 out of 32 games. I think we\u2019ve reached a point where it\u2019s fair to ask whether Scoot is injury prone. You can\u2019t successfully build around him if that\u2019s the case, coupled with the lack of refinement in his game. Luckily the Blazers have another season to evaluate Henderson on the cheap before having to make a decision on his future. The major question of whether he\u2019s a viable starting point guard of a good team, is now burdened with the addition of \u201cCan Scoot be available enough?\u201d<\/p>\n
Matisse Thybelle, after missing 65 games last season, made it all the way to the fifth game of this season, before jamming his thumb that required surgery. He\u2019s on the shelf for about the next 6 weeks. He\u2019s on an expiring contract of $11.5M, so this trade deadline is the Blazers\u2019 last chance to include him in a deal. Otherwise, they are going to have to decide to let him walk or try re-signing him next summer. There\u2019s no doubt Thybelle makes an impact in small minutes, but when you\u2019ve only played in 46% of the games since signing a 3-year contract, not only does it hurt your trade value, but it makes the decision of being re-signed a tough one. When he comes back in January, we can only hope he plays well enough to garner some trade deadline attention. It\u2019s hard to see him back here next year, unless it\u2019s on a shorter and cheaper contract.<\/p>\n
Blake Wesley was a tremendous late summer find on a one year, vet minimum deal. He was a major force in allowing Portland to play stifling defense in the early part of the season. He was averaging the highest PER 36 steal average in NBA History (3.7). The intensity and ferocity with which he played, unfortunately caused him to suffer the same foot bone break that both Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum suffered when they were young. An injury that cost them about a season each. Wesley is slated to miss 3 months before getting back to basketball activities. It feels like a toss up whether the team brings him back beyond this season.<\/p>\n
As we continue this walk along the M.A.S.H Unit corridor, we come to the room of Jrue Holiday. After missing the past 6 six games nursing a calf injury, Holiday is one of the key lynchpins for the Blazers short and medium-term picture. You never want to see \u201ccalf soreness\u201d and \u201cAge 35\u201d in the same sentence. Especially when that player has 2 years, and roughly $70M left on his deal. If the Blazers like their backcourt, and forecast Jrue as a catalyst to winning, then we have to get used to this current \u201cweek to week\u201d diagnosis. He won\u2019t be going anywhere, but he\u2019ll be frustratingly in and out of the lineup constantly. Where things get tricky is making the decision on if he\u2019s going to be the right vet for both Scoot and Sharpe to play with, and if those two are the right guards to build around.<\/p>\n
As it stands now, if the Blazers want to win and push for the playoffs, then the more Jrue, the better. That means less Scoot minutes as he works his way back. Another scenario is that Holiday plays well enough and remains reasonably healthy, that his salary becomes vital for the Blazers to make their next significant trade. Jrue\u2019s future is going to have a major impact on Portland\u2019s decision making.<\/p>\n
The options? (A) Stay and be a vet leader to play with Portland\u2019s young guard hopefuls, (B) remain the starting point guard to help the team immediately; thereby stunting Scoot even further, (C) remain an injury risk that floats in and out of the lineup, (D) or be used in a trade that helps further the Blazers rebuild. Forecasting the right timing and precision required to thread the delicate needle on Holiday staying or going, is something Joe Cronin is going to have to master. When he plays, Jrue is currently Portland\u2019s first or second best player every night. That alone creates an issue among the backcourt hierarchy.<\/p>\n
That brings us to Shaedon Sharpe. The player that everyone hopes can break out and become Portland\u2019s next superstar scorer. He has missed the past 4 games, also nursing an apparent season-long calf injury. From an injury standpoint, he only has a couple priors on his rap sheet. He missed 68 games his sophomore season with a similar adductor tear as Lillard, shutting down his season. The other is a watch out. Twice he\u2019s torn the same labrum muscle in his left shoulder. The first time knocked him out of his first summer league. The second time was just over a year ago, which caused him to miss the start of the season.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s anything else injured, it\u2019s his jump shot outside of the midrange. An abysmal 26% from downtown on 7 attempts a game says he\u2019s shooting within the intentional flow of the offense, but that he\u2019s not being used properly. Plays ran for Sharpe to get clean looks from 16 feet in, should be a staple for Splitter in this offense. While Sharpe has been noticeably more aggressive in trying to score this season, he\u2019s been largely inefficient. Granted, he was on a nice little streak over his last 6 games before sitting, where he averaged 28.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1 steal in 31 minutes per game. His overall field goal percentage during that span, also jumped 7 points from his season average (51% to 44%.).<\/p>\n
His defense has been decent, however, he hasn\u2019t shown a lot of improvement in his overall game over the past couple years. He\u2019s always been good at attacking the rim, but he hasn\u2019t added anything to his bag. His handle is slightly better, but still sketchy. It\u2019s one of his bugaboos for struggling to beat his man often, and he resorts into bad, step back shots. He hasn\u2019t developed any kind of back to the basket game, and his handle limits his ISO play to straight line angles. He\u2019s being encouraged to be more aggressive doing the things he already knows how to do. As a result, he\u2019s becoming defined as a volume chucking scorer, and you can\u2019t win big in the NBA with those guys as your top player.<\/p>\n
Sharpe is looking like a guy who would function most comfortably as a 3rd or 4th option. Some nights he\u2019ll go bonkers and score a ton, however, he has just as many nights right now, where he is shooting the Blazers out of games. Whether it\u2019s getting hurt, or the end of the last season, something always stops Sharpe in his tracks when he has put up nice numbers in small to medium sample sizes. The pattern for when he re-starts again, he regresses, before working to get back to where he just was before going out. Things with Sharpe always feel like two steps forward followed by two steps back in a Groundhog Day cycle. Hopefully, maturity and experience arrive in his game where he can become a consistent version of his best self. However, the front office needs to be thinking about adding a boatload of shooting to its backcourt soon. Especially as its long-term frontcourt starters appear to be locked in. Portland\u2019s two young guards are nothing short of streaky and unreliable as rebuild cornerstones.<\/p>\n
Which brings us to our stalwart hero, Damian Lillard. While prime Lillard would be exactly what ails this team, he\u2019s now a mystery moving forward. So many questions abound about Lillard\u2019s fit, that it requires its own article next summer. The way he talks makes him sound as if he\u2019s expecting to come back and reclaim his mantle. That sounds awfully dangerous, because we saw Dame become as big as the franchise itself. Now there are youngsters that absolutely need a season of starting and playing together. Scoot and Shaedon will be entering years 4 and 5, respectively. For Dame to come back with his legendary shadow cast over the team and re-assuming the face of the franchise, how it will all work is anyone\u2019s guess. Hopefully it\u2019s not like Kobe Bryant\u2019s last couple seasons post-achilles surgery. (RIP)<\/p>\n
The Curse is back with a vengeance. Only this time it has opened up a ton of questions, not only for the remainder of this season, but for the next few years. The 2026 draft is shaping up to be a blockbuster of talent. And for the next couple of months, wins are going to be extremely difficult. What Joe Cronin does next to navigate out of this current hurricane of chaos will be a significant part of his tenure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m not a superstitious person, but when it comes to the Portland Trail Blazers and their decades old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,46315,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-318424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-blazers-analysis","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}