Portland Trail Blazers: 3 Pros and 3 Cons after a dozen games
Pro #3: Improved Defense
It’s been chaotic and ugly at times, but the Portland Trail Blazers defense is gradually improving. Last season they gave up 114.3 points per game which ranked them 23rd in the league. So far, Portland is over five points better at only 109.2 points per game, which moves them up to 20th.
As the season wears on, this trend should slowly continue and may even pick up depending on how comfortable thy players get with Billups’ system and any trades that happen along the way.
Con #3: Offensive decline
As the Portland Trail Blazers’ defense has slowly improved, it’s been offset by a slight decline in scoring. Their offensive production dropped from 116.1 points (5th) in 2020-21 to 110.9 (9th) this year.
Again the players are adjusting to the new coach’s offensive sets. Portland hasn’t cut back on three-point shooting as Billups talked about in the offseason. Instead, they are shooting around half a three-pointer more per game than they did in the previous season.
Unfortunately, their shooting percentage is down to 35.6 percent from last year’s 38.5. Most of the decline is due to Lillard’s slump. The Blazers’ percentages should increase as Dame finds his way out of his early-season shooting woes.
In Conclusion
It’s a mixed bag right now of early-season miscues and sloppy play in some games, compared with others where the Portland Trail Blazers look sharp and much improved. The roster isn’t balanced talent-wise as the top four scorers are 6-4 or shorter.
This team is at its best when Nurkic or another big can step up and be a legit inside scoring consistently. Until that happens, I won’t consider this roster maximized.
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What do you make of the Portland Trail Blazers start to 2021-22? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.