Portland Trail Blazers – Setting a rotation for a talented and deep team
Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers.
After a short delay, the Portland Trail Blazers began their training camp this week. One of the first things head coach Terry Stotts has to do is set a rotation.
The start of the Portland Trail Blazers regular season is just around the corner. This NBA year is going to be very different. But that’s on par for 2020 as a whole. “What a time to be alive!”
This is going to be a great year for the Blazers. They have maybe one of the deepest teams Rip City has seen in a good long while. Portland goes at least three deep at three of the five positions, with solid NBA talent. A case can be made that all five spots on the floor go three deep. It might require some creativity, but the point remains, this is a deep and talented Blazers team.
Roster Changes
Here is a quick summary of the Blazers offseason moves. Portland dealt the 16th overall pick of the 2020 draft, their first-round pick of the 2021 draft, and Trevor Ariza to the Rockets for Robert Covington. The Blazers also traded Mario Hezonja to the Boston Celtics for center Enes Kanter. Free agents Harry Giles and Derrick Jones Jr. signed as free agents. They replace the departed Hassan Whiteside and Wenyen Gabriel. Maybe their best move of the break wasn’t bringing in someone new, it was re-signing free agent Carmelo Anthony.
Basically, the Portland Trail Blazers set up an odd-sized rotation, where they can mix and match at any position. It hurts my brain to even think about who plays where. So, I’ll save my remaining useful brain cells to focus on this roster and the task at hand, which is how head coach Terry Stotts will use all these new NBA caliber pieces to maximize his team’s talent and put them in situations to be successful.