Portland Trail Blazers: “Here I am Stuck in the Middle with You”
Almost 25 percent of the way through the 2021-22 season, and the Portland Trail Blazers stuck as a .500 team.
The Portland Trail Blazers are close a quarter through the season, and it feels like the old Steelers Wheel song “Stuck in the Middle with You” might be this season’s anthem. Like Night and Day, Ying and Yang, two steps forward, two steps back, home games and road games, wins, losses, the Blazers continue to be stuck in the middle. So here are five questions that must be answered, sooner rather than later, before the season’s goals become entirely out of reach.
Q1 – Is it time to give up on the defensive potential of this backcourt?
I’ve often thought that much of the support for the Damian Lillard/CJ Mccollum tandem was rooted in trying to emulate the success of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. A high-scoring backcourt that can create shots and hit the three-ball at such a high rate seemed like the perfect route to creating a Golden State-lite, north of the Oregon-California state line.
But the Trail Blazers’ results don’t bear that theory out. No matter how often the Blazers shift around defenders at the forward positions, they can’t cover for their teammate’s defensive woes on the perimeter. That’s a huge problem that leads to too many easy baskets for the opponent.
At this point, I feel sympathy for how often Portland’s big men have to compensate for the guards. The bigs constantly get pulled out of position, to the point where they struggle to protect the paint as it must be defended.
If this team can’t drastically improve its backcourt defense with the current personnel, then they need to change up that personnel. The how and where more than likely lead to McCollum’s departure.
Also broke the Blazers stuff out into a few different videos.
— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) December 6, 2021
First, how did the Blazers get here/why is the defense so bad? https://t.co/vjA8Pagwwy
Second, are there any shake-up trades not involving Damian Lillard that make sense? https://t.co/m42gTrZGIN
A clip below, too. pic.twitter.com/1JpdVhpFZ2