Portland Trail Blazers need a wing more than a big
The Portland Trail Blazers have plenty of injuries. One of the things they need most to fill in the holes is a wing player.
Some of my colleagues, peers, and fans have said that the Portland Trail Blazers need to add a big man. Specifically, a power forward. The reasoning being the losses of Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic. Because of their injuries, Enes Kanter is now starting at center, and Harry Giles moved from power forward to be his backup.
Some other trickle-down effects of the injuries are the lack of a shot-blocker in the starting lineup. Giles not being as comfortable in the center spot as the power forward. Add in the injury to CJ McCollum, and now you have even more chaos with both the starters and reserves.
But here’s a few things to include in the thought of acquiring another big man. The NBA is moving more and more to guys that can face up, shoot and be athletic. Big men must do all of that, along with rebounding and blocking shots. Meaning they must have the ability to drop down to block a shot and then recover to guard a shooter.
Nurkic doesn’t have the foot speed to do that. If Collins can ever be healthy, he can play that kind of D, but first, he has to get on the court. Also, Nurkic and Collins will/should be back this year. So, when adding another big man, coach Stotts has to find a way to divvy up minutes for the new guy and the current bigs. Teams that use a big power forward and center in the starting lineup haven’t had great success in recent years.
The real need
Portland’s real need is for an outside scorer more than they need an inside player. The loss of Nurkic is important, but the loss of McCollum is worse. CJ is the only player on the roster other than Damian Lillard who can consistently get his own shot.
Rodney Hood is a streaky shooter. Gary Trent‘s bubble performance looks to be more of an aberration than a new norm. This isn’t Robert Covington‘s strength. Portland shouldn’t count on Carmelo Anthony to do this every night like his prime.
All this brings us to the fact that the Portland Trail Blazers need another wing player. A guy who can share some of the outside scoring load with Lillard until McCollum returns. At that point, the new player will need to slide to the second unit and be a co-main scorer. Unless McCollum comes back and says, “Hey, the starters have been rolling, and I don’t want to mess that up right now. I want to help my teammates any way that I can.”
The March 21 trade deadline is still a ways away. Blazers GM Neal Olshey has time to make some calculated personnel moves.
"I'm battle tested. I'm good"
CJ McCollum on foot injury getting in the way of best season of his career.
"I've been in worse situations I don't think I'll ever be as low when I hurt my foot in college, that's as low as I've ever been besides my grandfather dying" #RipCity pic.twitter.com/EChFsQYT02
— Orlando Sanchez (@orlandokgw) January 19, 2021
Do you think the Portland Trail Blazers in more need of a big man or wing? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media?