The latest Roundball Ramble is actually a crossover episode as Corban was a guest on Steven Bagell’s “The Bird Rights” podcast to breakdown the Damian Lillard trade from all angles! How does Dame fit with the Bucks? Did the Blazers get enough back in return? How do the Suns grade out in the midst of all of this? And then to close, the two break down possible Jrue Holiday trades, includinfg (SPOILER) the one that actually ended up happening!

Give me the hot sauce! Host Greg Mroz reacts & gives his thoughts on the Bulls comeback win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night in Portland. Chicago trailed by as many as 20, including 18 after the 1st quarter, but fought back thanks to a career night on the boards from Coby White, another all around solid performance from Otto Porter Jr, and some great bench play from Thad Young.

SUBSCRIBE on iTunes and follow @HoopBallBulls for Bulls updates all season long!

2018-2019 Record                 Home Record               Road Record

        53-29                                     32-9                            21-20

2019-2020 Record                 Home Record               Road Record

         29-37                                     18-14                            11-23

Fun Facts for the season

-The Blazers saw their win percentage plummet from .646 to .439 and injuries to their starting lineup were a major reason why: Jusuf Nurkić (0 games played), Zach Collins (3 games played), Rodney Hood (21 games played)

-The Blazers have committed to their future in CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard as they are both under contract for a combined $302.73M ($75.68M average per season) through the 2023-24 campaign while Lillard has a player option of $54.25M for the 2024-25 season. Based on current salary cap projections, Lillard and McCollum will earn approximately .3459 percent of the cap in 2020-21, .4855 percent of the cap in 2021-22 and .6266 percent of the cap in 2022-23.

-Carmelo Anthony was able to return to the NBA with the Blazers this season due to the injuries discussed above and he performed well in points leagues as he produced 10th round value on the season

-Due to improved free throw shooting season over season (.449 on 3.4 attempts per game in 2018-19, .680 on 3.7 attempts per game in 2019-20), Hassan Whiteside became one of the biggest winners for fantasy GMs as he improved his value by seven rounds in 8/9-cat leagues and currently sits in the first round in 9-cat and the second round in 8-cat. Meanwhile, Whiteside was being drafted as an eighth round value according to Yahoo!

-The Blazers and the Lakers are the only teams to have two players inside the top-10 in terms of total value in both 8- and 9-cat leagues

-Trevor Ariza was able to re-establish himself as a fantasy asset in standard leagues since joining the Blazers in late January as he produced 7th/6th round per-game value in 21 appearances compared with 17th/15th round per-game value in 32 opportunities with the Kings

-Since the 2014 draft, the Blazers have only come away with seven draft picks and only three of those players have averaged more than 13 minutes per game with the Blazers: Anfernee Simons (18.1 mpg), Gary Trent (17.2 mpg) and Zach Collins (17.0 mpg)

For a closer look at how the season has gone, be sure to check out our Season So Far series. The Blazers’ entry can be found right here.

Rosterable in 12-team 8/9-cat leagues (per-game value)

-Damian Lillard (1st round/1st round)

-Hassan Whiteside (2nd round/1st round)

-CJ McCollum (5th round/6th round)

-Carmelo Anthony (11th round/12th round)

Showed flashes of fantasy value in 12-team 8/9-cat leagues (per-game value)

-Trevor Ariza (7th round/6th round with Blazers)

-Rodney Hood (12th round/11th round until Dec 5)

-Gary Trent (13th/10th round since Jan 18)

Rosterable in standard points leagues

(This is Yahoo’s standard scoring system, we’ll be using them as a reference for the rankings but obviously things will be different in your league if you use a custom scoring format or play on ESPN/CBS/Fantrax)

-Damian Lillard (1st round)

-Hassan Whiteside (2nd round)

-CJ McCollum (4th round)

-Carmelo Anthony (10th round)

Flashes of value in standard points leagues:

-Trevor Ariza (9th round since Feb 11)

Predicting standard league relevant players for 2020-21 season

-Damian Lillard(all formats)

-CJ McCollum (all formats)

-Hassan Whiteside (all formats)

-Jusuf Nurkić (all formats)

Potential for standard league value for 2020-21 season

-Trevor Ariza (all formats)

-Carmelo Anthony (points leagues)

-Gary Trent (9-cat)

-Anfernee Simons (points leagues)

-Zach Collins (8/9-cat)

Upcoming Notable Free Agents

-Hassan Whiteside (unrestricted)

-Trevor Ariza (team option of $12.8M in 2020-21, partially guaranteed of $1.8M)

-Rodney Hood (player option of $6M in 2020-21)

-Carmelo Anthony (unrestricted)

-Mario Hezonja (player option of $1.92M in 2020-21)

-Caleb Swanigan (unrestricted)

-Wenyen Gabriel (restricted)

Key Additions

-Jusuf Nurkić (return from injury)

-Carmelo Anthony (mid-season free agent signing)

-Trevor Ariza (acquired via trade)

-Wenyen Gabriel (acquired via trade)

-Caleb Swanigan (acquired via trade)

Key Departures

-Kent Bazemore (traded to Kings)

-Anthony Tolliver (traded to Kings)

-Skal Labissiere (traded to Hawks)

-Pau Gasol (waived)

Upcoming Draft Picks

-2020 first round pick

-2020 second round pick (protected 31-55)

-2021 first round pick

-2022 first round pick

-2022 second round pick

Unfortunately, Portland lost a lot more than it was able to gain over the course of the summer, and Nurkic’s absence has had a large ripple effect that has left the Blazers on the outside looking in on the playoff race. It’s unlikely that the team envisioned a repeat given their limited cap space and the loss of a few important players, but it’s still a shame to see a year of Lillard’s prime spent this way.

Let’s see how the Blazers got here.

Dame’s Dominance

Despite all of the obstacles that the Blazers have faced this year, there has been one constant: Damian Lillard. Portland’s lack of depth has been a major issue all season, and while guys like Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr. have stepped up from time to time, the Blazers have put an incredible burden on Lillard’s shoulders.

While Lillard’s consistent elite play is far from a surprise, he found an extra gear this season, turning in possibly the finest stretch of his career.

From January 20 to February 3, Lillard was simply electrifying. Over that two-week span, he averaged 48.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 10.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 8.2 3-pointers per contest while shooting .548 from the field and .923 from the line on over 10 free throws per contest.

In fact, those two weeks ranked first and fourth in terms of the most impactful fantasy performances of the season.

Dame had a scoring run of 61, 47, 50, 36, 48 and 51 points in that time and carried fantasy managers to massive wins. And for that night with the paltry 36 points, Lillard made up the difference by racking up a triple-double. He opened January with an 11-point, 5-for-20 shooting dud but would score at least 20 points in every game up until March 7. Watching Lillard tear up his opponents has always been must-see TV for all basketball fans, but this was beyond any reasonable expectations.

Lillard was able to put the Blazers on his back, not that that’s a new phenomenon, but his run at the end of January was something that we may not see again for a long while. When the season stopped Dame sat 5^th/6^th in 8/9-cat leagues and was even better at 4/4 in terms of total value. And that’s on top of Lillard missing eight of the season’s first 64 games, the second-most absences of his career.

It has now been several years of Lillard sitting with a first-round ADP, though he always seems to find a way to outperform a couple players who get selected in front of him. Perhaps this stretch will stick in enough minds to push Lillard’s ADP out of first-round turn territory and deeper into the top-10. The consistency, availability and upside for runs like this make him impossible to ignore.

Hassan Whiteside

The other fantasy success story of Portland’s season was newcomer Hassan Whiteside. Highly derided by the end of his Miami tenure, Whiteside came to Portland as the regular-season replacement for Nurkic. After playing time became a major sticking point with Erik Spoelstra, Whiteside was gift-wrapped a chance to play huge minutes with limited competition. He and Nurkic have very different games, and it wasn’t always perfect, but Whiteside will go down as a massive victory for any fantasy GMs who rolled the dice on the big man this year.

Whiteside’s ability to rack up blocks and rebounds has never been in question, but his poor free throw shooting has been a major hangup in a stat set that generally relies on minutes to produce value. After breaking out in 2014-15, Whiteside spent the next two years averaging 29.1 and 32.6 minutes per contest. In two seasons prior to this year, however, injuries and a changing NBA landscape led to a more limited role for a player who received an extravagant four-year deal from the Heat, as Whiteside would average just 25.3 and 23.3 minutes per contest while missing 38 games. That placed a very tight ceiling on his fantasy appeal and frustrated a player who was making franchise cornerstone money.

This season, Whiteside received more than enough playing time to make up for any shortcomings. When the season stopped, he was averaging 16.3 points, a career-high 14.2 rebounds, a career-high 1.2 assists, 0.4 steals and a league-leading 3.1 blocks per game while shooting .618 from the field and .680 from the line in 31.3 minutes a night.

While the numbers at the charity stripe are still forcing fantasy GMs into punt strategies, it’s still a massive improvement on Whiteside’s career .606 average and the ugly .449 mark he posted in his final season in Miami. All told, Whiteside, as the last center standing in Portland, crushed expectations and has returned top-15/10 value in 8/9-cat leagues and is a first-round player in both formats in terms of total value. The sell-high window just never shut on him as he bucked the recent trend and kept on posting huge lines.

On the court, the drop off from Nurkic remained steep, especially in terms of playmaking, consistent effort and team defense, which is reflected in the Blazers’ record, but Whiteside was able to put together a big season and rehab his value a year before he hits the open market again. He remains an imperfect option as a modern center, but Whiteside is far from the big issue in terms of Portland’s station outside the playoff picture.

Indirectly, the story gets more complicated. Although Whiteside had great statistical success and filled a position of need, the maneuvering that the Blazers had to do to absorb his bloated contract ended up hurting the team more than expected.

Lack of Forward Depth

Nurkic’s lengthy absence meant that the Blazers had their hands tied to a certain extent. Whiteside was an elite rim-protector and rebounder who was openly available on the market, with a contract so out of whack that it wouldn’t take much in the way of assets to acquire him. In trading away Moe Harkless and Meyers Leonard, the Blazers were supposed to be getting more immediate impact.

Although the Blazers aren’t reaching the same heights they did a year ago, the departure of Harkless shouldn’t have been the death knell in Portland’s season. In losing both Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu, however, the Blazers opted to upgrade their center position in exchange for a drop-off at the forward spot – a dip that would become even more apparent as Portland dealt with injuries all over the roster.

The hope was that third-year forward Zach Collins could rise into a more prominent role as a capable stretch four, someone who could both keep defenses honest from deep and protect the rim even though he lacked the muscle to contend with the NBA’s more prototypical centers. A dislocated shoulder three games into the season derailed those plans, and Portland’s gamble quickly went bust. Behind Collins, the Blazers were stuck with Mario Hezonja, Skal Labissiere, Anthony Tolliver and rookie Nassir Little as their power forward group.

For a team hoping to build on a deep playoff run, that depth was simply not good enough. Even if Collins was able to stay healthy, the Blazers bench would have been a massive question mark against the teams at the top of the daunting Western Conference. The problem was compounded by more disappointment at small forward.

Earlier in the offseason, Portland dealt the PF-capable Evan Turner to Atlanta in exchange for Kent Bazemore, who was to compete with Rodney Hood for minutes on the wing and Harkless’ old starting small forward spot. When Hood went down with a torn Achilles and it became clear that Bazemore just wouldn’t fit as the larger forward that the Blazers desperately needed, the team was left in a real bind. While their biggest fix came from the free agent pool (which we’ll get to shortly), Portland flipped Bazemore (and Tolliver) to Sacramento in exchange for their own offseason disappointment, veteran Trevor Ariza.

Any way you slice it, Portland’s forward rotation was not equipped to hold up against top competition. There were significant questions, even when the team was at full health, about who would absorb the defensive work that Aminu and Harkless had shouldered. The lack of lengthy, switchable defenders was always going to be the team’s Achilles heel.

In the end, the Blazers opted to make space for Whiteside and his $27 million salary, vaporizing flexibility in the process. Any trade deadline deal of consequence would’ve likely required Whiteside heading in the other direction, which would only create another major problem despite the high replacement level for centers.

Injuries

While the roster was flawed to begin with, there is little doubt that injuries have put a huge damper on the Blazers’ season.

The most glaring absence is that of Nurkic, who blossomed after being traded out from under Nikola Jokic’s shadow in Denver. Nurk Alerts were in full supply as soon as the big man landed in Rip City, and his second full season with the Blazers was a masterpiece. Nurkic finished the 2018-19 season with career-bests in points (15.6), rebounds (10.4), assists (3.2), steals (1.0), field goal percentage (.508) and free throw percentage (.773) while tying his previous best of 1.4 blocks per game.

Losing Nurkic for the bulk of the season was a huge blow for Portland, as the addition of Whiteside led to a wave of roster decisions that ended up leaving the Blazers in a tough spot. While Whiteside has a respectable net rating of plus-2.3 this season, it pales in comparison to Nurkic’s net rating of plus-10.5 from the 2018-19 campaign. The Blazers’ offense has also changed without Nurkic’s passing ability, with Whiteside boasting a 7.7 assist ratio this year compared to Nurkic’s 16.8 in his last season. They’re simply less dynamic, and Whiteside doesn’t command nearly as much defensive attention as Nurkic in general.

Nurkic was preparing to make his return when the season stopped but he may actually be worse off from this stoppage. He’s now been forced to rehab on his own and will need to shake off massive amounts of rust, making it unlikely that he plays in a significant capacity at any point in the “regular season.”

To further the issues up front, Collins was lost for the year right out of the gates, unable to even get going in what was supposed to be his breakout season. In an extremely small sample, Collins was managing to shoot .429 from deep to go along with 9.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 0.7 swats per contest.

That the Blazers were willing to move out all of their power forward depth to elevate a player who was limited in his first two seasons is a huge vote of confidence for Collins. His fantasy stat set is still a bit thin in general, and it’s unlikely that he’ll really take off unless he starts collecting more blocks, but Collins is someone that the Blazers are intent on developing and is a player worth remembering as we move forward.

While a healthy Collins might not have been enough to put Portland back into a playoff spot on its own, the injury prevented the team from getting a long look at how he might fit going forward; a tough break as the Blazers prepare to shed one large salary this summer.

On the wings, Rodney Hood maintained the momentum from his strong playoff run last year and was getting the lion’s share of minutes over Kent Bazemore until he suffered a torn Achilles. His absurd .493 mark from deep gave Portland some reliable spacing, and even if he wasn’t picking up enough stats to be of more than fleeting use in fantasy, his injury forced the Blazers to turn to inexperienced fill-ins.

The problem was exacerbated by Bazemore’s dud of a run with the Blazers. He shot .347 from the field and an ugly .327 from deep; hardly acceptable for a supposed 3-and-D asset.

And those are only the major, long-term injuries.

Lillard missed eight games, two for personal reasons and six for a groin strain – though that would’ve been much more damaging had it happened at another time in the season, as Lillard took advantage of the All-Star break to rest up.

C.J. McCollum missed three games with a left ankle sprain. Whiteside has missed five games and suffered a left knee bone bruise. Labissiere went down with left knee inflammation shortly after carving out a big rotation role and hasn’t played since December 28 (though he’s now a member of the Hawks). Anfernee Simons leads the team in games played.

Melo

But of course, injuries breed opportunity, and Portland’s dire straits led to the return of Carmelo Anthony.

While Anthony is not the cure to what ails the Blazers, it is still good to see him back hooping on an NBA floor, as he deserves a better end than what transpired in Houston. He’s been pushed into 32.5 minutes per game over his 50 contests, far too much in a perfect world, but Anthony can still get his points.

On the back of 15.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.5 blocks and 1.4 threes per game on 42.6% shooting, Anthony is a safe, if boring, late-round option for any fantasy players in need of some scoring punch. He remains over-rostered because of his name value but Anthony has at least been able to fit a little more seamlessly with the Blazers than he did with the Rockets.

Despite the feel-good story of Anthony’s return to the league, one has to wonder what the future holds. This spot opened up because Portland lost its two starting forwards over the summer and then lost two more during the season to significant injuries. Basketball Reference credits Anthony with a minus-3.7 Box Plus-Minus, meaning he’s approximately 3.7 points per 100 possessions worse than a league-average player. More troubling is that Anthony is actually minus-1.9 on the offensive end, worse than his minus-1.8 mark on defense. All told, he is sporting a minus-0.7 VORP.

A Joe Johnson-like ride into the sunset could be the best-case scenario, as no team will be offering Anthony the same kind of role he’s received this year unless they’re desperate.

There is certainly something joyous about seeing Melo go out and score, but his days in the league are winding down, and he’s simply being overexposed out of necessity as a member of the Blazers. Only time will tell if he can hang around in a league that’s getting increasingly ruthless about roster moves.

That pick is for 2024 and is top-55 protected.

In other words, it’s unlikely to travel across the country, if draft picks could do such a thing.

For the Blazers, as some of their other moves have been lately, this one is about the books. Portland created a $2.4 million trade exception out of this and trimmed another $3.8 million of their luxury tax bill. The cash considerations cover Skal’s salary for the rest of the season, so Labissiere will be essentially paid by the Blazers despite suiting up for the Hawks from here on out.

It had been rumored that Portland would try and move Hassan Whiteside’s massive expiring deal to really cut costs, but he has been playing too well of late and Damian Lillard’s effort are enough to keep the Blazers from going into full sell mode.

Labissiere’s injury may have played into this – he’s out indefinitely with left knee inflammation – but it’s still a mild surprise that Portland would move him rather than someone like Mario Hezonja given their respective contributions this season.

In turn, that gives the Hawks a risk-free window to look at Labissiere, whose intriguing skillset has yet to be fully unlocked after a few seasons in Sacramento seemed to mess with his development. In 17.5 minutes per game this season, the fourth-year forward is averaging 5.8 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 0.9 blocks.

The Hawks figure to try him as a rotational depth player, backing up John Collins and taking some of the more traditional matchup minutes from Vince Carter.

Although this is one of the more minor deals of deadline day, the motivations and benefits are clear. The Blazers weren’t expected to move too many players, though they have been working diligently to clean up their finances and the loss of Labissiere shouldn’t make or break their playoff chase. Atlanta gets to try and turn a toolsy player into a longer-term contributor on someone else’s dime.

The Warriors’ dynasty is done, the Lakers and Clippers have added major starpower, the Rockets reunited old friends and the Jazz have finally added an elite point guard to the mix. That, and there’s plenty of young teams gunning to assert themselves, ranging from current contenders like Denver to up-and-comers like Sacramento and Dallas. Despite all the player movemnt this summer, the West reigns supreme in terms of quality and it figures to be a dogfight as teams jockey for playoff spots, let alone seeding.

True superteams may be gone for the moment but there are more than enough dynamic duos to tide us over in a season that figures to be pretty unpredictable.

Dallas Mavericks

Fifth and final starter

Delon Wright, Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis and Dwight Powell appear to be locked in as four of the Mavs’ starters. The versatility of that group means that Dallas can go in a couple of different directions with the last starting spot.

If Doncic ends up playing shooting guard the Mavs have a few intriguing small forward options. Justin Jackson got the nod in the team’s first preseason game, but he’s never really emerged as an impact player despite providing passable, invisible minutes. Rick Carlisle favorite Dorian Finney-Smith has held down the starting role in the past but the Mavs may want to maximize his utility as a do-it-all bench option.

If shooting guard is the open spot and Doncic starts at the three, Tim Hardaway Jr., who is recovering from another stress reaction in his left leg, might be the choice. He would also be a valuable primary scorer for a second unit, however, and might not have the defensive chops to fill a complementary 3-and-D role alongside high-usage stars as a starter. Seth Curry or Jalen Brunson could start if the Mavs want a two-PG look, and Wright’s defensive versatility would make it a workable situation.

Denver Nuggets

What’s on the table for Will Barton?

This probably isn’t what Will Barton envisioned when he signed a four-year, $53 million contract. Elevated into the starting lineup, Will The Thrill’s 2018-19 season was marred by an early injury and he was unable to find a rhythm on a well-oiled machine of a Nuggets team after returning in the midst of a tight playoff race. That injury, of course, allowed players like Malik Beasley and Torrey Craig to step up and cement themselves as real contributors, which leads us to today.

Craig is rumored to be the favorite to start at small forward and is a nice defensive fit with Denver’s four obvious starters. While the competition is still on, Barton may be used in the super-sub sixth man role that led to his big contract in the first place.

The question for Denver probably lies further in the future – with cheaper alternatives in relative abundance, the Nuggets already over the cap and set to watch Jerami Grant, Beasley, Craig, Juancho Hernangomez and Mason Plumlee hit free agency, how much can they afford to allocate to Barton? Keep an eye on his deployment throughout the exhibition slate. The Nuggets undoubtedly believe in him as a player but there are plenty of other paths for the team to take if Barton can’t recapture his old form.

Golden State Warriors

How do the Warriors reshuffle their defense?

As you might’ve heard, the Warriors will look different this season. Though D’Angelo Russell won’t be a straight replacement for Klay Thompson on offense (something we’ll dig into more closely soon), the big questions come on the defensive side of the floor.

The Klay-Russell swap is a massive downgrade there, but Golden State will also be without Kevin Durant’s endless length and Andre Iguodala’s institutional knowledge. Sacramento soured on Willie Cauley-Stein because of his defensive lapses. A team whose defensive units used to move on a string will be decidedly different this year.

Add in the potential need for Golden State to work rest into Draymond Green’s schedule, and we might see some very funky lineups over the course of the season. Keep an eye on how players like Cauley-Stein, Alfonzo McKinnie and Jacob Evans hang on defense in the preseason, otherwise we might see Steve Kerr engage in some schematic retooling.

Houston Rockets

Do the Rockets have a real bench or just situational contributors?

The Rockets continue to swing big, this time swapping Chris Paul for Russell Westbrook. Although they continue to boast one of the league’s most talented backcourt, one can’t help but wonder whether the depth problem will rear its ugly head once again.

Last season Houston dealt with a number of injuries that left them severely shorthanded in the early going, and although the Westbrook-Paul exchange should generally ensure fewer missed games, the Rockets’ bench isn’t exactly a strength.

The group of Austin Rivers, Gerald Green, Gary Clark, Thabo Sefolosha, Tyson Chandler and Nene has plenty of weak spots. Though their minutes will be limited in the postseason, can the Rockets assemble a cohesive bench unit that can get them through the regular season without leaving the starters overtaxed? It’s easy to think of scenarios where each of those bench players can play an important role, but there aren’t a ton of second-unit groups that you can throw out comfortably in any matchup. Anyone who can turn in a strong preseason might be able to distance themselves from the pack for a team that’s dying for secondary contributors.

LA Clippers

Landry Shamet’s point guard minutes

Doc Rivers has cited Landry Shamet’s past work as a lead guard when discussing the fact that Shamet will play some point guard this season. The uncertainty of Paul George’s timeline means that the Clippers will be down one of their primary ball-handlers for at least the first few games of the year, and that’s not inconsequential on a team with one true point guard.

Lou Williams can handle some of those minutes behind Patrick Beverley but he’s better suited in a scoring role. The Clippers have already been forced to get a little creative, letting rookie Terance Mann play backup point guard in training camp as well as the preseason opener. If Shamet can play a capable PG, that would certainly ease the burden on everyone else. Any value that Shamet provides beyond spacing will count as a major win.

Los Angeles Lakers

What does Dwight Howard have left?

After a nine-game campaign and dwindling on-court effectiveness in the years prior, it’s safe to declare Dwight Howard a completely unknown quantity. The Lakers seem to be going out of their way to replace JaVale McGee after a surprisingly productive season, and the Howard move and reported camp battle is the largest affront in a series of decisions.

If Howard can still play, even in a 20-minute role, and that’s a big ‘if,’ he’ll give the Lakers an athletic rim-runner that provides a big boost on the glass. That’s not inconsequential for a team that had to add the ancient Tyson Chandler last season. If he can’t, it’ll be a lot of unnecessary drama for nothing. It should be interesting to see how Howard is used, and how much he can make of his time on the floor.

Memphis Grizzlies

Can Brandon Clarke force his way in?

Ever since the draft, Brandon Clarke has been impossible to ignore. He was borderline dominant in Summer League and has continued to impress throughout training camp, and the rebuilding Grizzlies have to be overjoyed with his play so far. If there’s one dark cloud on the horizon for Clarke it’s that Memphis has two frontcourt pillars in Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jonas Valanciunas locked into the starting five.

Although JV may not be a 30-minute per night player, he will start, and he will be a featured offensive player when he is on the floor. That, plus the presence of power forward types in Jae Crowder and Bruno Caboclo, will put playing time pressure on Clarke as he tries to carve out a role. That won’t be a monumental task given Clarke’s play so far and Memphis’ trajectory, but he can start to explore his ceiling quickly with a big preseason.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Robert Covington: Power Forward?

The Wolves are prepared to hand the starting shooting guard job to either Jarrett Culver or Josh Okogie, which will push everyone down a position. Barring a stunning bench demotion for Andrew Wiggins, that means we’re looking at Robert Covington opening the season as Minnesota’s starting power forward.

With the backdrop of Covington’s balky knees, it’s going to be a big challenge for a player who might need to add a little muscle to make it work in every possible matchup. Additionally, that might be suboptimal deployment for a player who has proven to be an All-NBA defender at the wing position. It’s at least a worthy experiment for a team that’s unlikely to make the playoffs while trying to find proper complements for Karl-Anthony Towns.

New Orleans Pelicans

Who loses out on the wings?

There’s an undeniable sense of excitement around the Pelicans this season as David Griffin has done his best to put together a roster that will thrive in an up-tempo attack. Though most of the attention has rightfully fallen to Zion Williamson, New Orleans is facing a bit of a logjam with all of their new acquisitions.

This is Jrue Holiday’s team, which means he’s locked into big minutes split between point guard and shooting guard. With Lonzo Ball in town, he’s likely to start at point guard, with Holiday opening games at the two. That figures to leave J.J. Redick out in the cold, unless the Pelicans opt to go super-small and move Brandon Ingram to the bench. Any way you slice it, someone who is used to starting will be forced to come off the bench. While you’re watching Zion jam on everyone, remember to keep an eye on Alvin Gentry’s rotations.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Andre Roberson

The Thunder have plenty of minutes available on the wings, which means that a healthy Roberson will have a great opportunity to reestablish himself as an elite defender. It has been over a year since he took the court thanks to a devastating injury and multiple setbacks, but his health could have a surprisingly large effect on the bottom half of the playoff bracket.

If the Thunder focus more on development than scrapping for a low playoff spot, Roberson’s presence can still help the team in a number of ways. Perhaps he plays himself into the team’s future plans, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander likely to slide back over to point guard as soon as Chris Paul leaves town (if not before). It’s possible that Roberson becomes a sought-after trade target as the arms race develops, with contenders itching to acquire a lockdown defender. Above all else, it’ll just be good to see him back on the court – it’s hard to root against someone so close to the end of an arduous road.

Phoenix Suns

Power forward battle

The Suns and a faint sense of hope: a tradition like no other. Phoenix went out and added a real point guard, as well as one of the top coaches on the market. Forward progress is being made but there remain a lot of questions to be answered about the team’s power forward rotation, and while there are a couple sensible choices there are a few options that would be Classic Suns.

In all likelihood the job will fall to either Dario Saric or Mikal Bridges. Young, talented players with versatility and upside. Perfect! With Kelly Oubre Jr. at small forward, however, it’s going to be a cramped rotation with these three, who would all benefit from extended minutes. That’s all well and good but the Suns also reached on forward Cam Johnson in the first round, and the organization may force him onto the floor to try and prove outsiders wrong. Mix in talk that newcomers Frank Kaminsky and Cheick Diallo could play some power forward as well (with Deandre Ayton and Aron Baynes consuming the entire center rotation), and it quickly becomes a mess.

Saric and Bridges need as much playing time as possible, but will they get it? And who will get the lion’s share? If Saric can take advantage of Bridges’ knee bone bruise, he can right the ship after a rocky campaign split between Philly and Minnesota.

Portland Trail Blazers

Reworking the forward rotation

The Blazers surprised pundits yet again last season, making it all the way to the Western Conference Finals despite losing Jusuf Nurkic amidst an outstanding campaign. While Portland will always carry a chip on its shoulder, it’s tough to see them authoring a repeat performance – even if Hassan Whiteside shows up on his best behavior and blossoms. Though most of the talk is centered on the improvement of other teams, the Blazers have some serious questions to answer at the forward positions.

Between Al-Farouq Aminu, Moe Harkless and Jake Layman, the Blazers will need to fill 70 minutes per game and 167 combined starts, exclusively at small forward and power forward. The addition of Kent Bazemore figures to help, though he has a mixed track record of success as a small forward. In 2015-16, he played 79% of his minutes at SF and was solid with 11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.5 threes per game on .441 from the field and a plus-2.3 net rating.

The following year saw him take a step back with 58% of his minutes coming at SF, as he produced averages of 11.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.7 threes on .409 from the field with a minus-1.7 net rating. Bazemore has primarily been a shooting guard since, only appearing as a small forward in 4% of his minutes last season per Basketball-Reference.

The largely untested Zach Collins is expected to start at power forward, and teams will be targeting him as a perimeter defender early and often. Offensively, his .331 mark from distance falls short of Aminu’s .343 mark, and teams will probably dare him to become a volume 3-point shooter with Whiteside dominating the interior. Behind Collins and Bazemore are Rodney Hood, Mario Hezonja and Anthony Tolliver. Portland will be tested against the West’s all-world collection of small forwards and Terry Stotts might need to get creative.

Sacramento Kings

Trevor Ariza’s playing time

For the second straight season, Ariza has chosen to sign on with a team in the bottom half of the West. Last season you could make the case that he was trying to combine a big paycheck with his playing time needs, but this year looks like the beginning of a steep decline. The Kings have added a couple centers and re-signed Harrison Barnes to start at small forward, and Ariza will not be a threat to Marvin Bagley’s minutes at power forward.

Ariza has not averaged fewer than 33.9 mpg since an injury-plagued 2012-13 season, and was over 32.9 mpg in the three seasons prior to that. Unless Luke Walton shoehorns him into a rotation at the expense of younger players (which has caused rifts with Sacramento’s front office in the past), Ariza is going to have to accept a drastically diminished role. That can be a tough adjustment for a guy who can clearly still handle big minutes, as well as one who may be more of a natural fit at small forward than a higher-paid teammate. Keep an eye on how Walton juggles the forward group.

San Antonio Spurs

Poeltl Power

Jakob Poeltl’s season featured plenty of ups and downs. A training camp battle for the starting center spot didn’t go his way, and he would actually sit out three of the Spurs’ first six games, logging just 54 seconds in one of those appearances. Through the end of January Poeltl averaged 14.7 minutes per game. For a player who was thought of as the sort of cerebral hard worker that would fit the San Antonio system, it was a struggle.

Poeltl was able to gain some traction in the wake of Pau Gasol’s foot injury and subsequent release, averaging 19.7 minutes (and 1.3 blocks per game) from February onwards. Though he may always have trouble defending larger players, Poeltl has great rebounding and rim-protecting instincts and can move in space better than a lot of his peers. If he can hit the ground running this season it would be a big development for the Spurs, and it could even be his ticket to the starting lineup. Last season Poeltl averaged 3.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 0.2 blocks in 17.4 mpg through five preseason contests – let’s see if he can do better this time around.

Utah Jazz

Defensive drop-off?

The Jazz are undoubtedly a title contender after adding Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic to round out what was already a strong core. They’re far more dangerous offensively and now have a number of ways to topple opponents rather than grinding them down on defense and leaning on Donovan Mitchell for scoring. Although Utah will still hang its hat on defense, this offseason did bring some changes that could leave the Jazz somewhat exposed.

That largely occurs at the power forward spot, where an effective thunder and lightning combo of Derrick Favors and Jae Crowder has been replaced by Jeff Green and some miscast players. Beyond Green, the most likely candidates to see meaningful minutes at the four are Royce O’Neale, Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Ingles. Though Basketball-Reference credits Ingles with 66% of his minutes at the four spot last season, Bogdanovic and O’Neale check in at 4% and 2%, respectively. With rumors of Ingles moving to a sixth man role so Bogdanovic can start, that would put a pretty heavy burden on either the 33-year-old Green or a player who has extremely limited experience.

Quin Snyder is one of the league’s top coaches and there are few doubts that the Jazz will get it figured out, but the team’s defense might not be on autopilot this season. The preseason should be illuminating in terms of how that unit will need to adjust.

Thompson was his normally stoic self, unbothered by a relatively slow start and the short-armed contests of Blazers guards en route to 26 points on 24 shots. Portland can live with that. What Terry Stotts and his staff must clean up before Thursday’s Game 2 is ball-screen defense on Curry that allowed him to get loose for 36 points and 9-of-15 three-point shooting.

It’s obviously no surprise that Enes Kanter was exploited by Golden State. What’s shocking is that his debilitating struggles on defense in Game 1 were more the result of scheme than any personal deficiencies. The same goes for Zach Collins, who coming into this series figured to play an even bigger role than he did against the Denver Nuggets due to his ability to move his feet on the perimeter.

Instead, the vast majority of the Blazers’ defensive issues on Tuesday night stemmed from the coaching staff’s vexing decision to employ its normal drop pick-and-roll defense against the best off-dribble shooter in the history of the sport.

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That’s never going to work against Curry. Perhaps there’s something to be said for the possibility that goading he and Thompson, who mostly feasted on that pick-and-roll and dribble hand-off coverage from mid-range, into jumpers makes Golden State more one-dimensional, taking away the “beautiful game” actions that have been a hallmark of this team during the Kerr era.

One problem: Curry and Thompson are arguably the two greatest shooters of all time. They don’t need airspace to launch and splash jumpers from all over the floor, especially when being checked by the Blazers’ undersized guards. Curry treated Damian Lillard like a shooting rack on the occasions the latter got an effective contest, and the 6-foot-7 Thompson rarely notices the reach of smaller defenders.

But what makes Portland’s defensive approach all the more confusing is that the Warriors – again, with Durant out of the lineup – just don’t have the supporting scoring punch that makes ceding Curry and Thompson clean looks the lesser of two evils. If Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Kevon Looney, Shaun Livingston, and Alfonzo McKinnie are going to beat the Blazers, that’s just something Stotts needs to be resigned to living with.

Instead, by giving the Splash Brothers, especially Curry, ample room to operate, Golden State managed to get top-tier production from its star backcourt while also allowing role players to get comfortable offensively.

Needless to say, that’s not a winning formula, and it confounds that Portland’s staff apparently thought otherwise. To be fair, there’s some sense to simplifying Kanter’s job on defense; he’s a traffic cone outside the paint anyway. But treating Collins the same way? It’s something close to indefensible, and one the Blazers will almost surely abandon come Game 2.

They really have no other choice, particularly given the reality that they need to steal a game to have any chance of winning this series before Durant returns.

Unfortunately, making that change alone won’t be enough to ensure Portland is more competitive Thursday night. Lillard and C.J. McCollum combined for just 36 points on 31 shots in Game 1. The former committed seven turnovers, and the latter managed just a single assist.

Criticism is headed Lillard’s way especially, and maybe rightfully so. He’s one of the 10 best players in the world – those guys are supposed to create answers when they wouldn’t otherwise exist, and he failed to do so time and again on Tuesday. But like last year’s first-round sweep at hand of the New Orleans Pelicans, any judgements on the play of he and McCollum should still come in the context of how the opposition is defending Portland at large.

Several years ago, Golden State was the first team to make abandoning non-shooters popular. Everyone knew the two-time defending champions would leave Moe Harkless, Al-Farouq Aminu, and Evan Turner on the perimeter, committing extra help Lillard and McCollum’s direction even when they put two defenders on the Blazers’ star playmakers at the point of attack after hand-offs and ball screens.

But the Warriors took that gambit even one step further in Game 1, sometimes straying far away from members of Portland’s supporting cast when Lillard and McCollum simply caught beyond the arc without a two-man game coming.

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Golden State can get away with things defensively other teams can’t due to their collective length, smarts, and communication. Draymond Green as the last line of defense between the ball and the rim is even better than Paul Millsap was a round earlier, and few are better at “zoning up” on two offensive players behind the action than Andre Iguodala – well, except Green. The Warriors’ defensive talent has been underrated dating back to the first season of this ongoing dynasty, and that remains the case.

Still, the Blazers should take a cue from their opponent defensively going forward by putting more pressure on ball screens, overloading the strong side of the floor, and running a second defender at Curry every now and then. Portland certainly doesn’t have Golden State’s defensive personnel, but in Harkless, Collins, Aminu, and Turner, possess several players with the requisite combination of size and anticipation to hold their own in a would-be losing numbers game near the rim.

The Blazers did make the Warriors pay many times in Game 1 for selling out to stop Lillard and McCollum, and even Kanter on the block. Golden State was extra aggressive trapping Lillard and McCollum on side hand-offs coming middle, at one point to an extent that allowed Lillard to put on the brakes, leaving Thompson and Green grasping at air several feet above Harkless as he handed the ball to Lillard for a wide open three.

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It’s absolutely imperative that Portland take advantage of that overzealousness more often than not, and if there’s anything encouraging to be gleaned from Game 1, it’s that Harkless scored 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting while mostly mooching off the attention paid to his higher-scoring teammates.

Kanter is included in that group, as Golden State doubled him the majority of times he caught on the block with his back to the basket. He had three assists on Tuesday, all in the first half, and all courtesy of the Warriors sending an extra defender his way while failing to make the necessary defensive rotations from there.

Kanter, by the way, had just four points in Game 1, unable to make plays on the short roll, missing several bunnies after offensive rebounds, and even getting the ball stolen by Green and Andrew Bogut in the second half when Golden State opted against doubling him. Expect the Warriors to continue mixing up their strategy when Kanter catches in the post, but don’t be surprised if they let him go to work one-on-one against Bogut, Green, and maybe Looney given how comfortable Portland seemed at times playing off the double-team in Game 1.

Regardless, the Blazers won’t pull off the upset unless their reserve-heavy units consistently outplay the Warriors’. It didn’t happen on Tuesday night. Golden State won both stints at the beginning of the second and fourth quarters when Thompson was on the floor without Curry and Green. Some of that can be explained by multiple made threes from the likes of Quinn Cook and Jonas Jerebko, but the bigger problem is that Portland’s bench units just weren’t able to produce enough offense.

If the Blazers want a chance in this series, they must win those minutes – it’s that simple.

Less elementary to come by are any changes the Blazers can make that could help solve the problems that plagued them in Game 1.

Aminu played just 19 minutes, and wasn’t the primary defender on Curry or Thompson when he was on the floor. If Stotts senses the need for major tweaks, the easiest one might be replacing Aminu in the starting lineup with Turner. The Warriors will leave him away from the ball just like they do Aminu, but he’s far better creating something out of nothing, and more importantly, allows Lillard and McCollum to play more off the ball, where it’s harder for help defenders to track them.

Dusting off Jake Layman, whether he starts for Aminu or comes off the bench, would likely create more space for Lillard and McCollum to attack, though Golden State would surely make him prove it before paying him attention away from the ball.

Starting Rodney Hood in Aminu’s place would lead to a similar advantage, though it bears wondering if he’s better left coming off the bench. He had 17 points on 4-of-8 shooting on Tuesday, overpowering defenders much in the way he did against Denver. P

ortland is probably asking too much of him defensively, though. Curry isn’t Jamal Murray, and Thompson isn’t Gary Harris. Hood’s length is an asset defensively no matter what perimeter player he’s guarding, but he’s overstretched chasing either of the Warriors’ stars across the floor. Of course, so are Lillard, McCollum, and Seth Curry. The only defenders who seemed to occasionally aggravate Curry and Thompson were Harkless, and to a less frequent measure, Turner.

A more radical curveball? Giving the lion’s share of center minutes to Collins. Doing so only makes sense under the assumption that the Blazers change their pick-and-roll defense to have the interior helper come “up to touch,” to the level of the screener, or even higher. Collins is fleet footed enough to cut off Curry in that scenario, then recover back to the paint in time to muck up the resulting action. There’s a trade-off in terms of offensive rebounding there, though, and it might not be one Portland can withstand – especially if Collins isn’t knocking down threes and the Warriors are welcoming him to take them, like in Game 1.

Hope isn’t lost. The Blazers just need to take one of these first two games at Oracle Arena, and they were within striking distance, somehow, as deep into this game as late in the third quarter. But Game 1 told us what pretty much everyone knew coming into the Western Conference Finals: Golden State is a decided favorite, with or without the player who many believe is the best in the world.

The Portland Trail Blazers weren’t swept out of the first round by the New Orleans Pelicans last year for any one reason, but most impactful among the many was the inability of Damian Lillard to free himself from constraints of extra aggressive ball-screen defense. Holiday and Davis weren’t the only Pelicans defenders who stymied Lillard while executing that plan of attack; Nikola Mirotic, in particular, deserves credit for his surprising effectiveness containing the ball on the other side of picks, letting Davis wreak havoc as a help defender around the rim. But it goes without saying that Alvin Gentry’s strategy hinged on the presence of his team’s two best defensive players, a tandem better suited to make life hell on Lillard than any other in the league.

A year later, the Oklahoma City Thunder seemed like a bad matchup for Portland on the surface given an ingrained defensive scheme similar to the one New Orleans employed to such success. Were Lillard and the Blazers prepared for another defense intent on forcing the ball out of his hands, goading role players into testing their limits offensively? Through the first two games of the first-round series between Portland and Oklahoma City, the answer has been an unequivocal affirmative – resulting from both the Thunder’s suboptimal personnel, and improvements and adjustments made by the Blazers.

Adams is lighter on his feet than one might expect given his status as the league’s resident strongman. His keen understanding of angles and space makes him a better rim-protector than the numbers suggest, too. But tasked with pressing a playmaker of Lillard’s caliber high up the floor, corralling him until the primary defender – mostly Westbrook to this point – recovers in time to put two defenders on the ball, has just proven too much for Adams to handle.
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The Thunder’s use of an aggressive drop on Lillard instead of a full hedge makes sense. He has functional range to the logo, and needs just a blink of an eye to turn the corner around a hedging defender and let fly from deep before the primary defender gets back in place for a sufficient contest. But Oklahoma City’s effort to find that difficult balance between preventing a pull-up triple and keeping the ball from the paint inevitably leaves Adams on an island, even if just for a moment, and Lillard’s been able to exploit that opportunity time and again – whether the Blazers run a simple pick-and-roll, hit Adams with a down screen before the main one is set, throw an additional screener in the fray, or Lillard rejects the pick altogether.

Lillard has also realized that sometimes his best course of attack is going even before the screen arrives. Paul George is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, and Terrence Ferguson is quickly developing into one of the game’s best young perimeter defenders, but there’s nothing they can do when Lillard, with nearly unparalleled burst, splits the sliver of space that briefly appears when the primary defender opens his hips to prepare for an oncoming pick.

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Remember, Adams isn’t Davis, and Westbrook isn’t Holiday. If Adams doesn’t have the quickness to contain Lillard in space beyond the arc, he certainly won’t be quick enough to chase him at an unexpected moment’s notice and affect a shot at the rim. That’s not his fault – Lillard has also roasted Nerlens Noel, one of the fastest bigs in basketball, in the same scenario on multiple occasions. Westbrook, never adept at navigating screens, needs to stay closer attached to the ball, and maybe more importantly, Billy Donovan must put Adams and company in a better position to succeed.

What that is, unfortunately, remains to be seen. It would help if Lillard stopped dropping bombs several steps behind the three-point line; over half of his 19 attempts from deep thus far have been from 28 feet or more. Maybe moving Westbrook off Lillard and slotting Ferguson onto him would lead to a bit more resistance at the initial point of attack, though Westbrook’s penchant for getting lost away from the ball and Ferguson’s lack of strength are complicating factors. Donovan seems to like the length of George on C.J. McCollum, who uses far more off-ball picks than his backcourt partner, but it’s not like that matchup has been in the Thunder’s favor thus far. Maybe they muck up the game by switching across five positions, giving more playing time to Noel and sliding Jerami Grant down to center, though doing so would obviously decrease Adams’ minutes.

Portland, with a year to prepare for its postseason opponents adopting a version of New Orleans’ defensive blueprint, won’t make it any easier for Oklahoma City to find workable adjustments, either.

Evan Turner, a non-threat from three who was frequently used as a primary ball handler both throughout the regular season and in last year’s playoffs, has played just 28 total minutes against the Thunder as Stotts prioritizes shooting and floor spacing. Rodney Hood and Seth Curry, who finished third in three-point percentage during the regular season, have been the Blazers’ first subs off the bench, while Zach Collins and Meyers Leonard, with varying degrees of threatening three-point range, have combined to play nearly as many minutes at center as Enes Kanter.

It’s been said for years that Portland becomes a different team when Al-Farouq Aminu and Moe Harkless knock down open shots. They’re a combined 1-of-7 from deep in this series, but it’s only mattered to a manageable extent because the Blazers are otherwise dotting the floor with shooters, pushing the pace when chances present themselves, and moving the ball quickly in the rare instances Lillard or McCollum get stuck off the dribble.

“Over the course of the game, shots are gonna fall – I think that’s what we’ve seen on the offensive end,” Lillard said after Game 2. “Everybody’s a part of it. We’re making the right pass, swing-swing, passing ahead. Everything that we’re doing offensively is keeping everybody involved, and it’s also making them pay for giving so much attention to the ball.”

We’ll see if those two-way realities hold true when this series shifts to Oklahoma City on Friday night.

In the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the first round of the 2017 playoffs, Kanter, then with the Oklahoma City Thunder, waited at the elbow as the Houston Rockets’ Patrick Beverley and Clint Capela ran a basic high ball screen. When Beverley turned the corner around the pick, Kanter began tentatively backpedaling, neither committing to the ball nor prioritizing preventing a lob to the rolling Capela. After the Rockets big man threw down an alley-oop from Beverley with neither player meeting much resistance whatsoever, the cameras turned their focus to the Oklahoma City sideline, where Billy Donovan leaned over to an assistant and uttered the phrase that will no doubt be on the minds of the Portland Trail Blazers leading up to the playoffs.

“Can’t play Kanter,” he said.

Kanter played 16 minutes in the Thunder’s Game 1 loss, and just 29 minutes over the remaining four games of the series. He got 21.6 minutes per game during the regular season as Oklahoma City’s first man off the bench, averaging 14.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game with a true shooting percentage a hair below 60.0.

The Thunder, in their first season without Kevin Durant, needed all the offensive punch they could get, and Kanter provided it more consistently than any other player on the roster save for Russell Westbrook. They needed his production to keep pace with the Rockets, especially, who’d finished just behind the Golden State Warriors for first in offensive efficiency, but Donovan knew Kanter would give on defense as much as he got on the other end – and perhaps even more given the presence of James Harden, the league’s most dangerous pick-and-roll ball handler.

Two years later, the major takeaway from Kanter’s game remains the same. What that means for his potential postseason role with the Blazers, though, is still somewhat uncertain, and will be at least until the field is set for good on April 10.

Kanter’s numbers, like always, certainly support the notion that he would be an important piece of Portland’s playoff rotation. He’s averaging 10.0 points and 6.7 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game since signing with the Blazers on February 21, shooting 54.2 percent from the field and 78.9 percent from the free throw line. Each of those numbers fall right in line with career norms on a per-minute basis, as does Kanter doing an overwhelming majority of his damage offensively from the restricted area and just outside of it. He’s 1-of-10 on shots taken beyond the paint, including missing all six of his above-the-break three-point attempts.

Unsurprisingly, Kanter has been exactly the player with Portland who more ardent league followers have known well for years. His reliable offensive production tantalizes, and his negative defensive impact almost renders it completely inconsequential. The Blazers have actually fared just fine defensively with Kanter on the floor thus far; his 108.3 defensive rating is a shade below the team’s overall mark in the 13 games since his acquisition. But a more thorough examination of the numbers and film tells the same story about Kanter’s defensive performance as it always has.

Kanter’s net defensive rating is +2.7, worst on the team. The Blazers are stingier in terms of field goal percentage against and three-point percentage against with him off the court. Opponents are shooting a scorching 67.2 percent at the rim with Kanter on the floor compared to just 59.9 percent when he’s sitting. Portland also grabs a slightly smaller share of defensive rebounds without him manning the middle, too.

All of the defensive limitations that have plagued Kanter since he entered the league in 2014 have reared their ugly head with the Blazers. He moves in sand while sliding laterally, doesn’t have the length or leaping ability to effectively challenge shots at the rim, and is often a step slow getting into position as a help defender – extra debilitating given Portland’s ultra-conservative defensive scheme.

Kanter does everything right initially while defending this pick-and-roll between Jamal Crawford and Richaun Holmes: He calls out the coverage, cuts off the drive by stationing himself at the elbow, and even gets back between the ball and the basket after Crawford slips a bounce pass to the rolling Holmes. None of that early work matters in the end, though, as Kanter’s choppy feet betray him while Holmes euro-steps around to the rim for an unencumbered finish.

Kanter isn’t long or explosive enough to be a good defense’s primary last line of protection at the rim. But many solid defensive outfits get by despite employing subpar shot-blockers on something close to a full-time basis, with the player in question compensating for that weakness by maintaining the integrity of the defensive string. Kanter, unfortunately, just can’t be counted on to be in the right place at the right time, arguably the most important factor a single player brings to Portland’s system.

In the clip below, he can be seen communicating with Seth Curry as Paul George isolates Al-Farouq Aminu at the top of the floor. Most offensive players stationed in the strong-side corner prohibit their defender from digging down to help on a drive due to the threat of a catch-and-shoot corner three, but not Nerlens Noel. Regardless, Kanter sticks to Noel as George straight-line drives to the rim and draws a foul, leaving Curry noticeably frustrated.

Means of limiting the influence of Kanter’s defensive ineptitude grow smaller in the playoffs, when teams spend extra time game-planning to exploit the weaknesses of specific players. Coaches most easily work around that issue by matching the minutes of an imminently-attackable defender against those of the opposition’s greatest offensive threat. Terry Stotts did just that in the Blazers’ overtime loss to Oklahoma City on March 7, three times bringing Kanter in or taking him out of the lineup when Westbrook checked in or out of the game.

Expect Stotts to take the same approach should his team match up with the Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Rockets, or Denver Nuggets in the playoffs. Finding Kanter minutes against the two-time defending champions might be impossible, and it would be nearly as difficult against Harden and Chris Paul. Stotts could match his minutes against those of Nikola Jokic against Denver, especially if Jamal Murray is also on the bench with the Nuggets’ best player. Kanter’s viability versus other playoff teams will probably depend on the flow of the game. If Donovan Mitchell or Lou Williams get hot, for instance, playing him against the Utah Jazz or Los Angeles Clippers could prove nearly as problematic as it would against Golden State.

Of course, Kanter could force his way into a consistent role against some potential postseason opponents if he proves a bellwether for Portland offensively, but that just hasn’t been the case to this point. The Blazers score 19.2 points more per 100 possessions with Kanter on the bench, a massive discrepancy explained by major dips in true shooting percentage, assist rate, and pace when he’s on the floor. Kanter’s presence has no positive effect on Portland’s offensive rebounding numbers, either. It’s also not like he’s lacked the opportunity to play with the team’s top players. Lineups featuring Kanter and Damian Lillard, playing perhaps the best basketball of his career right now, have an offensive rating of just 101.4, well below the Blazers’ season-long mark.

Kanter certainly brings a lot to the table offensively. He has incredible touch in the paint, the patience and footwork necessary to finish over or around longer defenders, and a canny understanding of screen-setting. Like Jusuf Nurkic, he routinely engulfs defenders while setting picks on the ball, and is also adept at the advanced art of flipping screens at the last minute, giving penetrators a new path to the rim.

But the space Kanter yields for Portland’s drivers and shooters as a screener, and his looming threat as a roll man whose knack for finding creases in the defense creates passing lanes for ball handlers have taken a backseat to his proclivity for post-ups on the left block. In years past, that might have been an acceptable outcome of his time on the floor, but Kanter just hasn’t been effective enough with his back to the basket to warrant the number of touches he’s received as a primary option.

He’s been used more frequently in the post since signing with the Blazers than any player in the league save LaMarcus Aldridge. Kanter is producing only .95 points per possession from the block, though, an average number beset by his problematic turnover rate and relative inability to draw fouls. Portland went to Kanter on the left box for three separate possessions late in the third quarter of a win over the Los Angeles Clippers, with no points to show for it despite the fact he was being guarded by the 6-foot-6 Montrezl Harrell.

In the postseason, will the Blazers really be able to afford going to Kanter on the left block for several possessions a game? It wouldn’t matter as much if he made his presence felt elsewhere offensively, but he’s not cleaning the offensive glass at his normally dominant rate, and Lillard, especially, has seemed reluctant to use him as a release valve on short rolls when teams double the ball, forcing it out of his hands. Kanter isn’t nearly as comfortable making plays from the high post as Nurkic, and obviously lacks the stretch of Meyers Leonard or even Zach Collins.

Last summer, Draymond Green popularized the term “16-game players,” referring to the rare type who can be on the floor for the duration of the postseason, irrespective of matchups and time and score. Kanter, it was made abundantly clear years ago, doesn’t fit that bill. Collins, given his versatile defensive chops and nascent long-range shooting ability, seems likeliest to cut into his minutes come playoff time, assuming Stotts continues embracing the four-out look he’s prioritized since the Blazers traded for Rodney Hood.

But the possibility Kanter becomes an afterthought for Portland in the postseason doesn’t mean his presence won’t be felt. Every possession matters in April, May, and June, and if Kanter is able to take advantage of a favorable matchup during his scant time on the floor, swinging the tenor of even a single playoff game with a flurry of offense, his signing will have proven well worth it. Anyone expecting him to do much more than that when it matters most, though, will be sorely disappointed.

But it’s indicative of Portland’s inherent ceiling that Leonard is in position to be getting consistent minutes at all. Neil Olshey talked all summer about the need for his team play a more modern style this season on both sides of the ball. The biggest reason why the coaching staff has been unable to implement those desired changes on a broad scale is because the Blazers still rotate three seven-footers, each of whom is best utilized playing center.

Rodney Hood‘s acquisition could be what forces Stotts to right that wrong. He’s much better with the ball in his hands than Portland’s incumbent wings, comfortable running second-side pick-and-rolls and creating his own offense late in the shot clock. Hood is a more threatening long-range shooter than either Al-Farouq Aminu or Moe Harkless, even if his numbers this season – including 33.3 percent on catch-and-shoot triples, a career low – tell a different story. He rarely gets to the line, frequently avoiding contact in the paint, but has the length and touch to finish around the rim when the defense is scrambling.

Hood is just a far more complete player offensively than Aminu, Harkless, or Jake Layman. His lack of a singular elite skill matters less to the Blazers than it does his previous teams, who often asked Hood to masquerade as a primary playmaker. He’s far better suited to a complementary role, one that magnifies the strengths of a jack of all trades.

It’s unclear for now where Stotts plans on slotting him into the rotation, but it goes without saying Portland didn’t make this trade to give Hood the departed Nik Stauskas‘ spot on the bench. Aminu’s defensive versatility and overall energy is indispensable to this team, and the pressure Layman puts on the rim as a cutter, straight-line driver, and transition finisher – even when his jumper isn’t falling – has proven the same. The most common immediate assumption among team followers is that Harkless, who’s yet to regain last season’s form while continuing to deal with nagging knee pain, will be the odd man out as 2018-19 continues. Ongoing struggles from three-point range, albeit on a small sample size, decrease his value exponentially, especially with Evan Turner capable of checking star opposing forwards when Aminu is on the bench.

But what if the Blazers went a different direction entirely, in hopes of living up to offseason promises of increased pace and space, plus an additional dose of switching defensively? Portland hasn’t had a surplus of viable wings on the roster in a long time. It would be a crime to not take advantage, particularly because Leonard, admirable as he’s played this season, isn’t exactly an essential component of the Blazers’ present and future. Lineups featuring he and Collins have barely broken even this season, and Stotts has all but completely abandoned units that slot him next to Jusuf Nurkic up front. Leonard’s size is more optical than functional, too. His utter lack of rim-protecting ability instincts means he’s normally chasing power forwards, leaving Collins as the last line defense, and it’s not like he’s beasting on the block offensively.

Dangers of Hood taking Leonard’s place in the rotation rather than Harkless’ are two-fold: the frustrating penchant of Nurkic and Collins to get into foul trouble, and a question of whether or not the latter rebounds well enough to play center close to full-time. The first issue would be summarily addressed by dusting off Leonard for spot minutes should their propensity for fouling befall Nurkic or Collins. Simple. The next one is more complicated. The Blazers’ defensive rebounding rate with Collins manning the middle is 70.1 percent, per NBA.com/stats, worse than the Sacramento Kings’ 27th-ranked mark. Might tradeoffs of increased tempo, an additional ball handler, and the option to switch across multiple positions be worthwhile, though? The supposedly imminent stylistic tweaks Olshey, and to a lesser extent Stotts, championed throughout the offseason certainly suggests they think so.

This would be a somewhat radical development, to be clear. Giving Hood a lion’s share or all of Harkless’ minutes would be the most seamless way to integrate him without rocking a steady boat. The Blazers are 32-20, fourth in a stacked Western Conference, after all, playing their best basketball of the season just before Stotts’ teams normally reach their peak. Maybe we still haven’t seen Portland at its best.

But even should that prove the case, would it meaningfully increase the Blazers’ chances of winning a playoff series? Overcoming realities of this roster’s limits means confronting them head on, and shuffling in Hood for Harkless while maintaining the status quo doesn’t qualify. The chief means behind Portland’s recent improvement offensively has been a greater emphasis on ball movement and pace in the halfcourt. Why not lean even further into that strategy by moving Leonard one spot down the bench and embracing small-ball full-go?

It would amount to a major change for the Blazers, one that indeed carries some measure of risk. But considering the realities of its current place in the conference pecking order, Portland doesn’t have much to lose, either.