Blazers' biggest improvement needs to come from within

Neil Olshey has done so well acquiring talent in his first two summers with the Trail Blazers, I don't blame anyone for dreaming this offseason, even as the Blazers are without a draft pick this year.

So go ahead and scour the potential free agent market and imagine Nick Young in a Blazers uniform, adding scoring punch to the bench. Wonder how much Avery Bradley's defensive prowess could help the Blazers perimeter. And think about how much better the Blazers could be with Thabo Sefolosha, or Al Farouq-Aminu, or Ekpe Udoh in the rotation.

Pretty enticing stuff.

But while all those players could be available come July 1, and while two of them could be signed under the provisions allowed the Blazers this summer — the estimated $5.3 million mid-level exception and the $2.08 million bi-annual exception — it's time the Blazers players stop relying on Olshey delivering miracles.

It's time the Blazers' best offseason acquisition comes from within.

That means you, Will Barton. Or you, CJ McCollum. Team leader LaMarcus Aldridge on Friday said his eye was on Thomas Robinson.

"This was his first year having a veteran big like myself to talk to him, and give him some guidance,'' Aldridge said. "I think if you watch film on him, he got better from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, learning how to play in a system, learning on how to be on a winning team. He went from dribbling coast-to-coast and turning it over to giving the ball to the guard to crashing the boards and doing extra things for us.''

Said Robinson: "We know the help has to come from within in the organization. We know the bench has to come back and be bigger.''

Of course, Olshey is not going to sit on his hands and hope the likes of Barton, McCollum, and Robinson develop this summer into impact rotation players. It's not his style.

This is a guy who manufactured Robin Lopez and Thomas Robinson out of thin air, and made bargain deals on veterans Mo Williams and Dorell Wright.

But even as his missive Friday was "we'll be aggressive in free agency and opportunistic in trades" we have seen how precarious the offseason market can be. Sometimes, guys don't fit in the locker room, like Gary Neal in Milwaukee. And sometimes guys get fat with a contract, like O.J. Mayo. And sometimes, guys get hurt (Chris Kaman) or just don't pan out (Josh Smith).

The best-case scenario is to have a player within your system, a player ingrained in your culture, to develop. It happened years ago with Danny Green in San Antonio, then later with Patty Mills.

On Friday, as the Blazers cleaned out their lockers and met with the front office and coaching staff, there was music coming out of the mouths of some of the Blazers.

Barton, whom Stotts said made the biggest jump from last summer to this season, sounded primed to make another leap.

He said his top priority was improving his defense to where he can be considered a "lockdown defender." He also wanted to improve his jump shot.

"This summer is about taking everything to another level,'' Barton said. "I feel I can be a much, much better player. I still feel there is a lot of room for growth. It's time for me to live in the gym, attack my offseason with a vengeance and become the player I know I can be.''

And Robinson vowed to improve his free throw percentage (56.4 percent), his jumper, and his consistency. He said he is in a better position to do so because he finally has a sense of stability in Portland, and a sense of family within the locker room, something he was missing while being traded twice in his first season.

"I have a better understanding where I am as a player,'' Robinson said.

McCollum, who was the 10th overall pick in last year's draft, missed 34 games with a broken foot, then struggled to get consistent playing time. He said he looks at Mills in San Antonio and Goran Dragic in Phoenix as examples of guards who took time to develop, and said he is intent on proving why he was a lottery pick.

"I'm far from a finished product,'' McCollum said. "I'm here for a reason. I was taken where I was taken for a reason.''

The most pressure to improve is probably on center Meyers Leonard, whose freak athletic ability has yet to translate to the court in his two seasons. He had a wonderful sense of self-awareness Friday, and often times for NBA players, that is the first step in growing.

"Not the year I wanted to have, '' Leonard said. "But I think that's going to fuel me for this coming summer and next year ... I mean, I can come out here and make 25 jump shots in a row, dunk from the free throw line, look athletic, be athletic, but until I learn to use it in a game, it's not really relevant.''

A player who last summer showed he could back up his offseason vows was Joel Freeland. He said a key component to his improvement was taking a step back and analyzing where he could get playing time. Where he could carve a role. To him, it was defense. So he got in better shape, improved his foot speed, and studied game film to better understand his defensive positioning.

An afterthought the year before, Freeland was a key role player this season before suffering a February knee injury.

So while it's fun to imagine Young and his ability to score in bunches, or the big-man shooting of Channing Frye or Josh McRoberts, and the defensive potential of Sefolosha, Bradley and Farouq-Aminu, those free agents are only one option.

"I think one of the things we've proven over the first two years is we are going to be creative and we're going to be aggressive,'' Olshey said. "There's a lot of ways to improve your team.''
Including from within.

-- Jason Quick | @jwquick


http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/i..._thabo_sefolosha_but_trai.html#incart_m-rpt-1

 

But you don't pay me to post what you write.

 

Yep. Barton doesn't have the skillset or mindset necessary to be a younger, more talented, more athletic, longer, more explosive version of Mo. CJ has clearly proven in his half year in the bigs that there's no way he's going to develop into a consistent bench player who can score in multiple ways. The fact that Crabbe could barely get into any games at all as a second round rookie playing behind six more veteran players makes it obvious that any hope of him becoming an effective 3&D swingman is completely unfounded. And TRob--well, there's just nothing to be said for him; all energy, no skill, clearly a huge draft bust with no chance of becoming a Reggie Evans type contributor. Better hit big on a free agent, or all is lost. :MARIS61: