The Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 roster is imbalanced. The majority of the squad either plays in the backcourt or at the big man positions, resulting in a scarcity of forward talent. While recent signing Branden Carlson is capable of playing the four, he\u2019s largely a center, highlighted by his seven-foot stature.<\/p>\n
The Blazers poached Carlson in the opening hours of free agency after he spent much of the past two seasons as a two-way player with the Oklahoma City Thunder, earning a ring in a minor role on the 2025 title squad. He also served with Toronto\u2019s G League affiliate Raptors 905 during the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old experienced a delayed NBA entry, spending five years at the University of Utah following a two-year mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<\/p>\n
Carlson comes to Portland on a veteran minimum deal, earning $2.4 million and probably a lot of time on the Blazers bench. He joins Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams III, Yang Hansen and potentially Micah Potter as guys who can man the five.<\/p>\n
But how does he get on the court and how can he help this Blazers team?<\/p>\n
In 74 NBA games, Carlson has averaged 4.9 points on 34.9 percent from three, 49.8 percent from the field and 65.9 percent from the charity stripe, to go with 2.4 boards, 0.6 assists and 0.6 blocks in 9.9 minutes. While much of his play has been experienced during junk time, those numbers extrapolated out to 36 minutes look relatively respectable at 17.9 points, 8.7 boards, 2.1 assists and 2.4 blocks.<\/p>\n
Carlson is one of those rare seven-footers who can shoot the ball from beyond the arc, boasting a smooth, replicable stroke. Through his two-year career, 2.1 (53.7 percent) of his 3.8 shot attempts have come from three with only 17.0 percent coming from the midrange.<\/p>\n
And for good reason. Last season, he shot only 29.4 percent on two-point jumpers. But I\u2019m not concerned. The last thing this Blazers roster needs is another specialist midrange shooter. This team needs guys who can space the floor, particularly in the frontcourt. Carlson isn\u2019t awful operating in the pick-and-roll and works well in the dunker spot, finishing 73 percent of his shots at the rim.<\/p>\n
On defense, he\u2019s not quick and doesn\u2019t leap particularly high, but with a 7\u20192 wingspan, he can hold his own as a traditional five. From what I\u2019ve seen, he\u2019s a liability guarding against smaller, swifter power forwards, particularly those who can operate out on the perimeter.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Carlson boasts two traits that should keep him relevant. He\u2019s seven-feet tall and can hit a three-pointer. Two features that will only become more important in the modern NBA. Carlson\u2019s path to more minutes relies on opening up the midrange and improving, as much as he can, his ability to anchor defenses.<\/p>\n
Donovan Clingan will go into the season as the Blazers\u2019 starting center with the hope he continues to increase his court time, improving on last season\u2019s 27.2 minutes. Recently re-signed Robert Williams III will be his primary backup and hopefully, with some improved injury luck, can even compete in back-to-backs.<\/p>\n
The veteran big appeared in 59 games last season and could have played more if not for the franchise\u2019s strict no-consecutive-night policy. However, even with improved health, Williams\u2019 body will need a handful of nights to rest and protect against future injury.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s on those nights where we see Carlson play 16 to 18 minutes, charged with playing passable defense and hitting a couple of threes to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Last season, these minutes were cobbled together by the undersized Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara and Jerami Grant.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s also a way Carlson gets on the court when Williams is in the rotation. When healthy, Williams is able to competently guard out to the perimeter thanks to ridiculous athleticism and incredible instincts. This ability could conceivably allow Head Coach Micah Nori to play Carlson and Williams at the same time.<\/p>\n
Though both are categorized as centers, Carlson and Williams are polar opposites when it comes to skillsets. When paired, Carlson\u2019s three-point shooting would, in theory, allow him to play the four on offense, helping stretch the floor, leaving Williams to operate in pick-and-rolls and in the dunker spot.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the ball, Carlson would be tasked with the traditional drop defense role. While he\u2019s not a great rim protector, as previously discussed, his height and length should be enough to be effective under the rim with Williams guarding smaller opponents and being a defensive playmaker.<\/p>\n
While Nori wouldn\u2019t be advised to rely on this ultra big lineup for extended periods of time, I can see him turning to it in specific situations, especially given the lack of power forward talent currently on the roster.<\/p>\n
Yang is still a work in progress and has, for the time being, likely lost his third-string center role until he gets his game up to NBA speed. If Micah Potter makes the team, he probably plays the majority of his time at power forward, if he sees the court at all.<\/p>\n
The older Carlson comes to Portland to serve in the Yang Hansen role, that is, third-string center, becoming Donovan Clingan\u2019s main back up when Robert Williams is either injured or being managed. But don\u2019t be surprised if he sees some minutes alongside Williams when the matchup makes sense.<\/p>\n
Carlson was brought in on a minimum deal in the opening hours of free agency, so let\u2019s not get carried away with thoughts of him changing this roster\u2019s fortunes. The best we can hope for is that he outplays his annual salary by serving as a third- or sometimes second-string big man who can hit a three or two off the Blazers bench.<\/p>\n
If this truly is the roster the Blazers enter the season with, then Coach Nori has his work cut out for him, but I doubt any of his headaches are caused by a third-string center who can score from long range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 roster is imbalanced. The majority of the squad either plays in the backcourt or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[47228,355,99],"class_list":["post-814800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-blazers-analysis","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814800","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=814800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}