By Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com Follow on Twitter on January 21, 2014 at 10:45 AM, updated January 21, 2014 at 10:49 AM The first half of the 2013-14 Trail Blazers season was nearly perfect. Will the second half be equally successful? Here are five story lines that could play a part in answering that question: 1. Will the Blazers make a midseason deal to bolster their playoff roster? If you think the Blazers’ incredible first-half run has recalibrated front office expectations and general manager Neil Olshey is aggressively scouring the trade market to acquire another piece for a playoff run, consider the following: The Blazers do not have any picks in the 2014 draft, they do not possess a trade exception and they do not have a Raef LaFrentz-like expiring contract.In short, they don’t have the pieces needed to entice a rebuilding team to unload a difference-making veteran in an unbalanced deal. Add that to the fact that Olshey is unwilling to jettison a valuable piece of the Blazers’ core, and the team simply doesn’t have the assets needed to make a splashy trade. View full sizeBlazers GM Neil OlsheyRandy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian Will Olshey snoop around? Absolutely. But unless he can land a player that is a no-brainer, unless he can acquire someone who would instantly make the Blazers a near-lock to advance past the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, don’t expect a February addition. Could the Blazers use another rugged power forward/center on their bench? Sure. Would they like to add another wing to give them extra scoring punch on the second unit? Maybe. But this isn’t fantasy basketball. The Blazers would have to give something up to get something back, and without draft picks, a trade exception or a big, expiring contract, that would require a virtual dollar-for-dollar deal.Another thing to consider: Chemistry. One of the Blazers’ biggest strengths is their cohesion and camaraderie. Olshey would be playing with fire if he plugged an unknown commodity into the mix and hoped it worked out. The Blazers have benefited from addition by subtraction in recents seasons (read: JJ Hickson, Raymond Felton, etc.). Adding the wrong player at the wrong time could result in subtraction by addition this season. Olshey made his biggest splashes last summer, when he traded for Robin Lopez and Thomas Robinson and signed Mo Williams, Dorell Wright and Earl Watson to free agent deals. Baring an unexpected gift landing in his lap, don’t expect a similarly busy trade deadline. 2. Can the offense carry the defense? The Blazers, quite simply, have featured the NBA’s best and most dynamic offense over the first half of the 2013-14 season. With a collection of sensational outside shooters, a handful of playmakers and the best inside-outside threat in the NBA, coach Terry Stotts’ flow offense has featured a heavy dose of passing, three-point shooting and movement. As the Blazers reached the halfway point of the season, they ranked among the league leaders in a surplus of offensive statistics, including first in scoring (109.6 points), first in offensive rating (110.6), first in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.78), first in free-throw shooting (82.5 percent), second in field goals made (40.4 per game), second in three-point shooting (39.5 percent) and 10th in field-goal shooting (45.7 percent). Few teams have been able to slow the Blazers down, and there are no signs it will happen anytime soon. The Blazers entered the season with a clear formula for success: Pair an elite offense with a middle-of-the-road defense and hope it forms a winner. It’s worked to perfection. But the question remains: Assuming the Blazers don’t suddenly morph into a defensive juggernaut, can this spectacular offense do enough to prop up a middling defense? The answer could determine how far this team goes. 3. Can the Blazers continue to stay healthy? View full sizeThe Blazers are the only team in the NBA to have featured the same starting lineup in every game this season.Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian After enduring an uncanny — and sometimes scary — number of injuries in recent seasons, the “jinxed” Blazers have been amazingly healthy halfway through the 2013-14 season. Only rookie CJ McCollum has suffered a long-term injury and the Blazers have featured the same starting lineup during the first 41 games of the season, by far the longest streak in the league. The next closest? The Los Angeles Clippers started the same five players in the first 16 games, one of just seven NBA teams to reach double-digits. Thanks to good fortune and new preventative training measures by Chris Stackpole, the team's first-year director of player health and performance, the Blazers are the only team in the NBA to feature the same starting lineup in every game this season. If the team’s good luck and good health continue, their unexpected success could extend all season. But, with a relatively thin bench, the starters are vital to this success. Any significant injury to a core piece could be devastating. 4. Can CJ McCollum provide a second-half spark? View full sizeCJ McCollum's best outing came when he scored 10 points in 14 minutes against the Celtics.Bruce Ely/The Oregonian When the No. 10 pick in the 2013 NBA draft returned in January, the Blazers’ initial plan was to bring him along slowly and make him earn a rotation spot. But Wright was mired in a slump just as McCollum entered the final stages of his comeback, so the team switched gears and decided to throw the 6-foot-3 rookie combo guard into the fire. In five games of limited action, McCollum has given the Blazers about what you’d expect from a rookie who hasn’t played in roughly a year: bursts of offensive firepower, up-and-down defense and inconsistency — but also promise. His best outing came in a 112-104 win over the Boston Celtics, when McCollum made 4 of 6 shots, including 2 of 3 three-pointers, and scored 10 points in 14 minutes. He also had an excellent seven-minute shift in the first half of a 127-111 win at Dallas, when he recorded seven points, one rebound and one assist, while producing a plus/minus of plus-10. It’s far too early to make any definitive judgments about what McCollum will be able to give the Blazers this season, but for the foreseeable future, Stotts will give him a chance to cement a rotation spot. If he can continue to improve and bring energy and offense off the bench, McCollum’s addition could be the equivalent of a midseason trade for the Blazers. 5. Can the Blazers’ bench do enough to support the starters? View full sizeThe play of Meyers Leonard has been hit and miss this season.Bruce Ely/The Oregonian Outside of Williams and Joel Freeland, the Blazers’ bench has been spotty at best. Wright started strong and faded. Meyers Leonard and Robinson have been hit-and-miss. The group has been so inconsistent, Stotts has abandoned his one-time rock-solid nine-man rotation in favor of a game-by-game approach. In recent games, Stotts has used McCollum and Robinson almost exclusively in the Nos. 8 and 9 spots in the rotation. But he says he’ll rotate Leonard into the mix as he sees fit. And if the postseason were scheduled to start tomorrow, don’t think for a second that Stotts wouldn’t insert the playoff-tested Wright back into the fray. The Blazers’ top six players have been mostly outstanding. But the final three spots of Stotts’ nine-man rotation have been iffy. Their play in the second half of the season could factor into how high the Blazers finish in the final Western Conference standings.-- Joe Freeman http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/i...ers_midseason_report_story_lines_to_watc.html
Good read. I agree with #1... we just don't have a lot of pieces to make the big move. #5 is good too... except we still don't know exactly what we have with CJ.
#1 - I think he'll make a move if something too good to pass up comes along. I don't think he's desperate to make a move. I think he'll listen, but I'm not even sure he's asking around at this point. #2 - On most nights the offense can carry the defense. Last night was not one of those nights. I think Terry tries to game plan for a team like Houston and take away one thing from their offense, usually the three pointer, but Houston isn't a very good three point shooting team. They like to slash and draw fouls. That's why we opened with a zone defense to hopefully stop some of the penetration and scoring in the paint. Unfortunately Houston went lights out and shot over 80% for most of the first half. That's extremely uncommon, and more often than not the strategy will work. #3 - Can the blazers stay healthy? That's the million dollar question, and it's one I really don't even want to ponder. Just enjoy the ride. #4 - I think CJ will continue to get better. I don't think he's going to be Dame, but I think he can provide 8-10 points off the bench consistently, while not making a ton of stupid mistakes. That's exactly what we need from him. #5 - I think the bench is going to be inconsistent. Some nights it will play very well, some nights it will shit the bed. Having CJ will definitely help a lot, but it seems like our nightly success depends on whether we get "Good Mo" or "Bad Mo." If Williams is on, the bench plays well... if he's off..... well...... Yeah. I think the bench is better with TRob and CJ, and that's an encouraging development.
Great article! Makes sense to me. I think the only thing I would add is the unknown factor of bench players that haven't really had a shot yet. Crabbe, Claver, Watson and to a lesser extent, Barton. Both Wright and Claver could end their shooting slump...that's a factor. Both players are capable of having an impact. 2nd half of the season, opportunities may change the look of the bench.
i think cj jas been great in a limited roll......if mo didnt dominate the ball like he was brandon roy i think you would see more out of cj. also, you can tell trob is coming on strong. hes limiting his stupid plays on offense (except he had one shitty drive to the hoop last nght.) and you can tell he is going for rebounds and playing prety good defense right now. energy is another tangible we need off our bench and he is bringing it. i think we are going to see our bench improve as the season continues
