NSL Insider - Team by Team: Portland Trailblazers

by Toby, updated on Monday, December 14 2020, 02:36 am EST

A movie quote to sum up Joel and the Portland Trailblazers:

Anchorman, Wes Mantooth (Vince Vaughn) –

Deep down in my stomach, with every inch of me, I pure, straight hate you! But, God damn it, do I respect you!

The Portland Trailblazers 2019/20 season : Nba Sim League World Champion

We all know how the previous season ended for the Blazers. A lot of hard work and dedication landed him the ultimate glory and a place in the history books.

Joel is a very active and knowledgeable GM. It is hard to pick a part a GM and a team when he clearly knows much much more than I do.

One thing I could learn from Joel is the Billy Bean mentality. Its about the numbers, where as I get attached to players and therefor hold on to sometimes dead weight.

Joel is ruthless when he needs to be, and it seems most if not all are just mathematical equations that all lead to the one result. Obviously his method works better than mine and everyone elses in the league.

Congratulations Joel. A stand up season for a stand up guy. Well deserved.

BEST PLAYER:

Take your pick… Portland has two of the premier players in the league. Obviously being James Harden and Kawhi Leonard.

They do work quite well together, because obviously harden is one of the best flat our scorers in the league and Kawhi arguably the best defender in the league. Clearly Kawhi can score too, but there is only so many shots to go round. So they can work in synergy because although at times Kawhi might not need to score as much there is a huge way he can still influence the game.

There isn’t many teams at all, if any, that in the same conversation can debate who is the best player on their team and also include them in the conversation for best in the league.

Not surprising with these two they are the reigning champs.

SLEEPER CANDIDATE:

Dejounte Murray – The Portland roster is obviously needing some filling out through free agency of possible with the erray of firsts burning a hole in Joel’s proverbial pocket.

But as the roster stands at the moment, Murray seems to be in for a much bigger role for The Trail Blazers. The 6 foot 5, combo guard should get plenty of run, first off focusing on his defensive tasks, and covering the gaurds spots for harden, so he can focus on what he does best.

However Murray is developing his offensive game, Now coming into his fourth year and the start of his first contract after the rookie one, its time for him to take that next step and become a reliable offensive option when his number is called. Although He has been involved in a lot of trade offers, if he manages to stay on the roster, he could be in for a bigger role and with that bigger stats.

BIGGEST TRADE:

The biggest deal is obviously one that involves one of the best players in the league, Kawhi Leonard.

The Blazers sent, Jimmy Butler, Clint Capela, Duncan Robinson and a 2024 Portland first for Kawhi Leonard, John Henson and Jakob Poeltl.

I wouldn’t say its one sided at all, because he gave up some good depth, but like I mentioned above having two of the best players in the world on the one roster, is going to be very difficult to beat. Which Joel and the Blazers clearly proved.

The fact that he wont it all, shows that this move was a stroke of genius, as I’m sure some other GMs thought it might not of worked and he ruined his depth.

There were plenty of other deals to go through, and there may be more one sided ones he managed to pull off, but I decided to go with this one. He seems to be constantly shuffling around picks, like he is trading Poke’mon cards back in the school playground, although sometimes it seems reminiscent of ripping of the preps and their parents calling the school and the cards ending up band.

DRAFT RECAP:

I thought about leaving this blank, as Joel isn’t usually a big part in the draft and this year wasn’t at all, besides picking RJ Hampton with pick 23. He was then swiftly sent to the Orlando Magic after that pick being owed in a deal. A short lived rookie career at Portland, which is the usual case.

FREE AGENCY:

Seeing as Portland only have five, yes FIVE, contracted players going into this season, it is obviously going to be a very busy and vital free agency day for Joel. Draft day is my Christmas, I would imagine that free agency is the equilevant for Joel. He is amazing with numbers, so like an NSL version of Rainman, probably knows the percentages, likelihood and therefore the odds of him landing certain free agents.

Id say the bigger contracts are most likely out of his sights.

For his team who has no one over 6 foot 8 contracted, will need to go after some cheap big men. Serge Ibaka, who may be on a little more than he would like would definitely be enticing. Mason Plumlee who is on a fairly GM friendly contract could get some love from Joel.

Whichever way he goes, im sure he will have calculated all he can on his end.

OUTLOOK:

I think it would be extremely silly to predict The Portland Trailblazers anywhere but around the top. He has already proven he knows what it takes and will do what it takes to secure all the glory.

With a plethora of picks at his disposal and the silver tongue to go with them, will easily fill out his roster with some good talent.

Even with the squad only having five players contracted as of right now, I would still expect Joel and Blazers to be in the running for another trophy.

Watch his space. I would imagine leading up and following free agency, Joel will be working the phones even more than usual. First asking about your life, buttering you up, then striking with some offers. People say the reason he gets so many deals done is because of how reasonable he is. He never throws out ugly offers, so we commend him on that. People have seemed to become scared of being ripped off by him, but don’t be, he is a lovable guy and at the moment with a new born baby in his house, there is chance you could get him on a sleep deprived day and could slip one through to the keeper, snagging a good deal. You’ll never know unless you pick up the phone.

	MIL	40
	LAC	37

	CHA	93
	MIA	101

	LAC	105
	ORL	111

	LAL	122
	DEN	119

	NY	103
	UTAH	110

NSL Insider - Team by Team: Portland Trailblazers

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