As nearly every NBA observer knows by now, the Portland Trail Blazers have been busy over the last few weeks. They traded for Ja Morant, signed Micah Nori as their new head coach, re-signed Robert Williams III, and picked up free agent center Branden Carlson. They haven\u2019t been alone in that impulse, though. Plenty of teams have made as many moves, some even more dramatic. More to the point, the flurry of exchanges has left the Blazers with a roster that could charitably be called \u201cunbalanced\u201d, perhaps more accurately \u201cunfinished\u201d.<\/p>\n
More than one reader of the Blazer\u2019s Edge Mailbag has noted the phenomenon, as this question demonstrates:<\/p>\n
Dave,<\/p>\n
This can\u2019t be it right? Setting aside what I think of trading for Ja right now, I\u2019m still looking at this roster and trying to make it make sense. It\u2019s all point guards and centers right? They can\u2019t put that team on the floor. So do you think there\u2019s another move coming? The media is saying no but I can\u2019t believe this is what we\u2019re going with. What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
Avery<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a look at the current roster:<\/p>\n
Guards: Ja Morant, Damian Lillard, Shaedon Sharpe, Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson, Vit Krejci<\/p>\n
Forwards: Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, Sidy Cissoko<\/p>\n
Centers: Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams III, Branden Carlson, Yang Hansen<\/p>\n
The imbalance you\u2019re talking about is clear. Portland fields four potential centers for one position, three potential forwards for two positions. That\u2019s a 4:1 ratio versus 1.5:1 (or 8:2 against 3:2 if you prefer round numbers). That\u2019s a big difference!<\/p>\n
We can overcome some of the difficulty by presuming players swinging between roles.<\/p>\n
Holiday and Henderson have already played some combo guard. Lillard might be able to. But that\u2019s the difference between point and shooting guard, mostly to get all those small guys minutes. It doesn\u2019t affect the forward void at all.<\/p>\n
The Blazers don\u2019t have a lot of swinging wings between the 2 and 3 spots. Avdija can play any of those positions, but he\u2019s already slotted as a forward in this construct instead of the de facto point guard role he played much of last year. Sharpe and Krejci might move to the small forward position, but modern small forwards are often your 3-and-D guys, spreading the floor with sharpshooting and locking down opposing scorers. Neither of those players is a defender and \u201cSharpe-shooting\u201d just isn\u2019t the same. Realistically, Shaedon needs some of the same space the point guards do, just from a different angle. Krejci can hit deep, but he\u2019s not the kind of guy you bank your franchise on.<\/p>\n
On the other end of the lineup, it\u2019s hard to imagine Williams or Hansen becoming a power forward next to the other centers. Williams would be mobile enough but his scoring range is limited. Hansen is too slow. Those centers are pretty firmly centers.<\/p>\n
One of the cautions here is that we\u2019ve only listed 13 players. It\u2019s possible the Blazers bring in another forward or two in free agency. The ideal ones\u2014those defensive-minded shooters\u2014are in high demand, though. Most of them are already off the market. And the best candidate for that particular role\u2014Blazers incumbent Matisse Thybulle\u2014is another guard. Odds are any outright signing will produce a minor candidate, at best.<\/p>\n
In short, Portland really will field three forwards, followed by a bunch of making up stuff and hoping. \u201cPositionless Basketball\u201d is all the rage, but it\u2019s meant to describe lineups in which everybody can do everything in all places and positions, not one in which nobody really fits any position at all.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re correct that media reports\u2014at least national ones\u2014have the Blazers standing pat now. I give that a fair amount of weight, simply because nothing changing is always the easiest, and thus most probable, option. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s by design. I\u2019m guessing the Blazers are ok biding their time until the next move, whatever it may be, understanding that the most obvious targets are either too expensive or unavailable right now. I fully believe more moves are coming. I just think they might not be as soon as Blazers fans want.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the summer, the hottest rumors involved trading the veteran Holiday and draft capital for stars, or at least suitable starters. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s the plan anymore. If they\u2019re going to make a deal, I\u2019m guessing it\u2019ll be inverted, leveraging the youth of Sharpe or Henderson against a mid-rotation veteran with the right skills and position. Think Sam Hauser in Boston or Cameron Johnson in Denver\u2026if not them directly, that kind of guy. The receiving team gets a flyer on upside that Portland can\u2019t take advantage of right now. The Blazers get a solid rotation player and maybe\u2014depending on the deal\u2014save a little money. They also preserve their draft stash and their ability to pivot in a couple years.<\/p>\n
While this kind of deal makes sense, it\u2019s not strictly necessary. Which brings us back to the original question. Will the Blazers make another move this summer? Technically speaking, they don\u2019t have to. The effect of such a move would be incremental. They\u2019d still end up in the middle zone of the Western Conference. They\u2019d just look better doing it, perhaps able to absorb a few more contingencies.<\/p>\n
That said they absolutely could and probably should. That lineup doesn\u2019t look right in any sense: playing time, role, shooting, defensive integrity. It\u2019s a mess of ingredients with no coherent dish at the end. If they don\u2019t, view this season as an extended trial run for lots of players, just at a higher level than the recent rebuilding phase offered.<\/p>\n
One part of my head says the Blazers absolutely need to make shifts before the year starts. Another part of my head says, reasonably speaking, they probably won\u2019t. What does your head say? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. And if you want to send in your own question to the Mailbag, email it to blazersub@gmail.com and we\u2019ll try to respond to as many as we can!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As nearly every NBA observer knows by now, the Portland Trail Blazers have been busy over the last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[47228,55570,355,99],"class_list":["post-747101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-blazers-analysis","tag-blazers-mailbags","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}