Portland Trail Blazers need to go old school when season resumes
The Portland Trail Blazers are missing two of their best outside shooters. They should modify their offensive game plan when the season re-starts.
After getting two key starting big men back from injury, one thing the Portland Trail Blazers have going for them is size. Unfortunately, where they come up short is from the outside. Without missing players Rodney Hood (Achillies) and Trevor Ariza (personal), Portland is a below-average three-point shooting team.
The NBA has turned into a three-point shooter’s game. That won’t necessarily work for the Blazers as they play their final eight games inside the league’s Orlando bubble.
Not to make too much of an exhibition game, but it was clear during Sunday’s loss to Toronto that the Portland Trail Blazers won’t beat many teams from behind the arc. They don’t have enough shooters on the squad to survive a three-point shootout. So why not take an old school approach?
There is no doubt that this is Damian Lillard‘s team. The Blazers don’t need to take that away from him. As Portland’s biggest offensive threat, defenses will come out on Lillard. Their intention will be letting anyone else not named Dame in a Trail Blazers jersey, beat them.
Go Big
Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Terry Stotts should let the big men do, what big men do, and play offense from the inside back out. Throughout their respective careers, Jusuf Nurkic (7–0), Zach Collins (6–11), and Hassan Whiteside (7–0) have scored the overwhelming majority of their points from within three feet of the basket.
It wasn’t that long ago, when guards brought the ball up the floor, passed the ball inside and let the big men go to work. If the center or power forward with the ball got double-teamed, he kicked it back out to the open man. From mid-range, Carmelo Anthony, CJ McCollum, and Lillard are all money.
If the strategy works, opposing defenses will start to sag low. Then Lillard will have more freedom to do his thing. If it doesn’t work, they can go back and try to win from the outside.