Portland Trail Blazers

Roster (14 spots, 1 open)

Damian Lillard PG

CJ McCollum SG

Jusuf Nurkic C

Hassan Whiteside C

Kent Bazemore SG/SF

Rodney Hood SG/SF

Mario Hezonja F

Zach Collins PF/C

Anthony Tolliver PF

Anfernee Simons G

Gary Trent Jr G/SF

Skal Labisiere PF/C

Nassir Little SF

Pau Gasol C

Two Way

Jaylen Hoard F

Starting 5

Damian Lillard PG

CJ McCollum SG

Rodney Hood SF

Zach Collins PF

Hassan Whiteside/Jusuf Nurkic C

Outgoing Players (7)

Evan Turner SG (Trade ATL)

Maurice Harkless (Trade LAC)

Meyers Leonard (Trade MIA)

Al Farouq Aminu (FA, ORL)

Seth Curry (FA, DAL)

Enes Kanter ( FA, BOS)

Jake Layman (Trade. MIN)

Incoming Players (7)

Kent Bazemore SG (Trade, Atl)

Pau Gasol C (FA, MIL)

Hassan Whiteside C (Trade, MIA)

Anthony Tolliver PF (FA, MIN)

Mario Hezonja SF (FA, NYK)

Nassir Little SF (25th pick 2019 NBA Draft)

Jaylen Hoard F (Undrafted)

2018-19 Final Regular Season Standing: 3rd Western Conference (53-29)

2018-19 Projected Season Standing: 3rd Western Conference (53-29)

The Portland Trail Blazers made a lot of moves during the offseason to upgrade the roster. Some out of necessity of progress, and others because there wasn’t much choice. The Blazers had little cap space during the summer to work with. General Manager Neil Olshey had to get crafty with trades and talk multiple players into taking minimum contracts. The Blazers couldn’t afford to just resign everyone without being hard capped.

Olshey got a steal in the draft in Nassir Little. His next move move was to trade Evan Turner to Atlanta for Ken Bazemore. The Blazers then let Aminu walk, which will turn out to have been in their best interest. They resigned Rodney Hood and tried to resign Enes Kanter, but he flailed at the pressure of making a decision. So, the Blazers traded Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard for Hassan Whiteside, a clear upgrade who will make the difference in the absence of Jusuf Nurkic who is healing from a broken leg. The Blazers then signed Mario Hezonja, Anthony Tolliver, and Pau Gasol to minimum contracts.

Neil Olshey came out looking good. He cleared out all of his mistakes, and now has a roster of mostly expiring contracts and a stable core. His options are open for the coming summer. He can use Whiteside and Bazemore as trade chips at the deadline, or he can play it out depending on how it goes early. The Blazers may struggle a bit with chemistry since they lost so many players with whom a deep camaraderie was built. The Blazers will overcome this though pretty quickly. They proved they could do it four seasons ago when they had to rebuild, and lost most of their core. Too, most of the other teams will face the same issue, as there has been so much turnover in the league this summer via trades and free agency.

The Blazers got better on the offensive end for sure. Yeah they lost Curry (who returned to Dallas), one of the best three point shooters in the NBA, and Kanter who was  a big part of their conference final run in the postseason, but they gained an ample amount of talent and fire power to make up for it. Whiteside and Bazemore will be huge for Portland. Resigning Hood was perfect. The addition of Gasol solidifies the front court till Nurkic returns. The Blazers may suffer a bit on the defensive end, without the versatility of Harkless and Aminu, but Hood and Collins played far better together in the postseason than did their predecessors.

That brings me to one Portland’s biggest issues. They will have to rely on young players to make a jump in order to be successful as a team. Zach Collins, Skal Labisiere, and Anfernee Simons to be specific. Simons has shown he can shoulder that burden in last seasons final game. Skal too. Collins is probably feeling the most pressure. If these guys can have break out seasons, even just one or two of them, than the Blazers will be fine.