Do the Portland Trail Blazers Have an Identity?
What is the identity of this Portland Trail Blazers team right now? When you watch them play, it just seems like they have a bunch of key talents and high-level talents that just do not fit in with one another.
Obviously, Damian Lillard struggling makes this whole team worse than they actually are and when he finally picks things back up, we most likely will not be having these types of conversations, but there just is not anything that we can pinpoint and say that this team is good at right now.
They rank 24th in the league in defensive rating and are allowing 109.8 PPG to their opponents, which ranks them 18th in the league, and while they should be a great offensive team, the Blazers have struggled moving the ball early on in the season.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Damian Lillard Considered Requesting Trade From Trail Blazers
Portland ranks just 21st in the league in assists per game and offensively, they play a lot of one-on-one basketball instead of getting everyone involved.
In order for this team to finally get back to the playoff threat we thought they would be, not only is Lillard going to have to snap out of his funk, but this entire team is really going to have to buy into what head coach Chauncey Billups is selling them.
“He’ll come in the huddle and he will speak his mind — ‘This isn’t good enough … you can get a better one than that,” Lillard told reporters in regards to his new head coach. “He doesn’t hesitate to call out bad plays, missed assignments, whatever. And I think it’s because he has a very good understanding on what it takes to win. So when he sees things out there happening that is taking away from us having a chance to win, he calls it out.”
Seeing as they have one of the more talented backcourts in the league, the Portland Trail Blazers definitely have the capability to rattle off a long win streak and get themselves back into the thick of things in the Western Conference, but as of right now, this team seems like they are in the same spot as they were last season.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Damian Lillard Considered Requesting Trade From Trail Blazers
Versus some of the better teams in the conference in a seven-game series, it is hard to imagine the Portland Trail Blazers could advance in the playoffs, at least as of right now. The month of November is going to be a critical time for this Blazers team to put things together and if they do not, we could wind up seeing GM Neil Olshey make a ton of roster changes prior to the trade deadline.
