Portland Trailblazers Team Review

 

2020-21 Finish: 78-4

 

Season Highlight:

Are you kidding me? Is it not obvious? This team won 78 freaking games! The only games they lost were 4 when they had only 1 of their big 3 playing! Dominant doesn�t even begin to describe their regular season and 78 wins is ridiculous. That will never be bested, ever, period.

 

Season Lowlight:

The season lowlight is unfortunately just as obvious as the season highlight for the Blazers. The unfortunate timing of the injury to Kawhi Leonard. Losing a star to injury is never a plan and always a blow, but to do it deep into the playoffs when you literally have nothing to do to try and fix it? Devastating. They were still undefeated with at least 2 stars playing right the way to the Conference Finals where they ran into the rampaging San Antonio Spurs who would go on to be the league Champs. The lowlight, Kawhi down, and no Finals despite the regular season dominance.

 

Best Trade:

Blazers send: Dejounte Murray, Rudy Gay, Mike Scott, Nicolo Melli, 2021 Pick 17, 2022 Minnesota 1^st and 2025 Portland 1st
Blazers get: Russell Westbrook and 2025 Lakers 2^nd round pick

It�s no secret that the Blazers GM is one of the doyens of trading, and this is exactly why. He amassed a swathe of assets which allowed him to prize away the mercurial star in Russell Westbrook. No one would ever doubt the value he sent is there. I myself called this a Best Trade for the Lakers last year, too, but this move took them from elite to 78.

 

Worst Trade:

Blazers send: Jordan Poole and Matthew Dellavedova
Blazers get: Wesley Matthews

It�s really hard to find a bad deal in the Blazers list. There�s a myriad of small deals that all step up one spot on the ladder over and over. But this one was a miss in my book. Poole of course was not as �ready� right now, but Matthews was already over done and Poole has now become something much much better.

 

Other Notable Trades:

Blazers send: Brook Lopez
Blazers get: 2023 Spurs 1^st, 2022 Pelicans 2^nd and 2023 Pelicans 2^nd

Good return for an unneeded big man who was holding up too much salary for them.

 

Blazers send: Jabari Parker, 2023 Spurs 1^st, 2023 Spurs 2^nd and 2023 Pelicans 2^nd
Blazers get: PJ Tucker, 2021 Pick 17 and 2025 Kings 1^st

Takes the picks, steps them up including the Kings Gold.

 

Blazers send: PJ Tucker and 2022 Pelicans 2^nd
Blazers get: Josh Hart

And then dump the salary and get a promising kid.

 

Blazers send: Brooklyn 2023 2^nd and Phoenix 2024 2^nd
Blazers get: Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Portland 2023 2^nd

Serviceable player.

 

Blazers send: Portland 2023 2^nd
Blazers get: Jordan Poole

Great get for a lowly future pick.

 

Blazers send: Brooklyn 2024 2^nd
Blazers get: Jeremy Lamb

Cash in on the cap space taking a solid player for near free.

 

Blazers send: Jeremy Lamb
Blazers get: Jakob Poeltl and Brooklyn 2025 2^nd

Turn a single 2^nd round pick into Poeltl and a 2^nd�Blazers!

 

Blazers send: Charlotte 2024 2^nd
Blazers get: Jeff Teague

And then�

Blazers send: Jeff Teague
Blazers get: Cleveland 2022 2^nd

Upgrading the 2^nd�

 

Blazers send: Jakob Poeltl and Udonis Haslem
Blazers get: Enes Kanter and Abdel Nader

Now his 2^nd round pick has turned into Kanter, Nader and a 2^nd.

 

Blazers send: Wesley Matthews, Jevon Carter, Wenyen Gabriel and Brooklyn 2025 2^nd
Blazers get: Trevor Ariza

Cut a bunch of mostly dead weight for a solid role player.

 

Blazers send: Abdel Nader
Blazers get: 2022 Portland 2^nd

2^nd to Kanter, 2^nd, 2^nd.

 

Blazers send: Trevor Ariza, Portland 2022 2^nd and cash
Blazers get: Cap space and large TPE

Salary dump.

 

Free Agency:

The Blazers are going to be active in free agency, they always are. They need to fill some spots and they have some key guys coming off tap too. Their biggest name is a UFA, one of the better minimum Cs is a UFA and they have a few RFAs they�d like to retain too.

Kawhi Leonard � UFA, lock to return.

Dwight Howard � UFA, likely finding a new home despite the desire to keep.

Josh Hart � RFA, lock to return.

Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk � RFA, lock to return.

Tyler Johnson � UFA, gone.

Gary Payton � UFA, gone.

Wayne Ellington � UFA, gone.

Enes Kanter � UFA, gone.

Taj Gibson � UFA, mutual interest in returning.

 

Star:

James Harden

You can nearly toss a coin here, but James is their guy. He was the Finals MVP the year before and he again lead their scoring this year with 29.1 per game in 29.9 minutes. 4 boards, 6 assists and 2 steals on 55/40/95 shooting. He�s the main man in Portland and will be even more so this coming season.

 

Flop:

Josh Hart

It�s harsh, but Hart never really found a rhythm last year. Sure, he averaged 9/3/3 in a star studded 78 win team, but he was the main starter for a large portion before then also getting injured and missing a large chunk down the stretch. However, if this is your flop, then man do you know you had a good year.

 

Draft Grades:

No picks!

 

The Future:

The Blazers future is bright as can be, no matter what you hear coming out of Portland. Of course it�s going to be hard to live up to a 78 win season, particularly when you�re likely without your best player for that season too, but the Blazers still have 2 superstars when they went 78-0 in the regular season with at least 2 superstars playing, and they added Andre Drummond to have upgraded the middle and Robert Covington who is as crafty and gluey a guy as they come. The Blazers are still legit even with Kawhi on a shelf. Now, imagine if he returns for the playoffs?

C: Andre Drummond / Tacko Fall
PF: Robert Covington / Taj Gibson
SF: Josh Hart / DeAndre Bembry / Keita Bates-Diop
SG: James Harden / Sviatoslav Myhailiuk / Elijah Hughes
PG: Russell Westbrook / Wayne Selden