Damian Lillard ever so slowly easing his way back on track, Larry Nance Jr rim-runs till the wheels fall off, and the Chris McGowan debacle: Trailblazers TSR Roundup

How have Damian Lillard and the Portland Trailblazers fared following a lackluster start to the 2021-22 NBA season after 15 games? 

Talking about how the Portland Trailblazers have fared this past fortnight would most certainly mean I would have to bring up the fact that an unexpected member of the Blazers front office resigned. Many fans would put their money on this executive being Neil Olshey due to an ongoing investigation that places him under the microscope however it wasn’t him. 

Blazers President, Chris McGowan, has stepped down from his aforementioned position due to internal strife between him, Neil Olshey, and Jodie Allen. According to stellar reporting from Jason Quick of ‘The Athletic’, McGowan wanted a bigger role on the media side of things for the Portland Trailblazers.

What he means by this is that Chris wanted to be the public voice of the Blazers, replacing Neil in that position. After talks with Jodie Allen and Neil Olshey fell through on this being a possibility, Chris McGowan packed his bags and rightfully so, went on vacation early. 

McGowan was set to have his contract expire by the time the summer of 2022 rolled around so this shouldn’t be all too devastating of a blow to the franchise. With McGown gone and Neil Olshey under investigation for reportedly setting up a hostile work environment, Damian Lillard might be the only Blazers personnel left of the three who came over to Portland in the summer of 2012. 

For those upset that I haven’t touched upon the Olshey investigation in detail; if you’ve made it this far into this article, you must be quite up-to-date with Portland Trailblazers news and so know about what has taken place that led to the allegations. 

However, for those not in the know, in short, employees in the Blazers front office are not happy with the way Neil Olshey has set up the work environment that they reside in, labeling it as ‘toxic’. They are also upset with him for mishandling the passing of a fellow co-worker in 2020. This has led to an investigation being carried out against him. 

Ok that’s enough front office talk, let’s get into the basketball side of things.

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Is Damian Lillard easing his way back to form? 

Make no mistake: Damian Lillard was horrendous (for his standards) to start off the 2021-22 NBA season. His percentages to start the year off were him shooting 33.7% from the field and 21.7% from beyond the arc. The past 5 games that he’s played have seen him up his numbers to 47.1 FG% and 39.1 3P%. 

It’s easy to talk about the bad before talking about the good so let’s switch it up a bit. Damian Lillard ha been making shots from beyond the arc that he most certainly can make. That was essentially the only problem he had at the start of the year from distance. Shots like kill-dribble step backs and side-step 3s are a walk in the park for Dame on most nights. 

Unfortunately, they weren’t falling for him to start the season but now, that doesn’t seem to be the case. At least, not as much as so as the first 10 games for the Portland Trailblazers. Now, the main problem with Dame has been his shooting from within the arc and it’s quite obvious he doesn’t have the same feel around the rim as before. 

His patented drive from the left wing and finish with his right hand hasn’t been an asset as of yet and everything from up-and-unders to mini-hook shots have simply not been falling. This seems like a good time to mention that Damian Lillard has been suffering from an abdominal strain and making layups against contact does require a considerable amount of core strength. 

Despite the fact that he it seems like he did put on a bit of muscle in the offseason, it hasn’t shown through his play inside. On the plus side, Damian Lillard is currently averaging the most assists and has the most ast/tov ratio of his career with that being 8.1 and 3.23, respectively. 

All in all, it’s great seeing Dame have his shots from beyond fall more consistently but he also needs to be a threat to drive into the lane to be the truest version of himself. 

Can the Portland Trailblazers rely on Larry Nance Jr to play big minutes? 

The Portland Trailblazers have the luxury of having not one, but two of the most underrated defensive frontcourt players in the league in Jusuf Nurkic and Larry Nance Jr. Though the eye test may lead fans to believe that Nurkic has not been all too great on defense this season, the stats tell a different story as he’s 2nd to only Rudy Gobert in defensive rating this season. 

Larry Nance Jr, on the other hand, hasn’t gotten a whole lot of playing time this season despite being quite the offseason acquisition for the Blazers. However, when Chauncey Billups did eventually let Nance play big minutes, he shined. His game against the Toronto Raptors was nothing short of flawless and there’s a few reasons for that. 

Bleacher Report’s resident Patrick Star is quite the athletic specimen, allowing him to be the vertical spacer that Jusuf Nurkic struggles to be at times. His defense can be thought of as an extremely poor man’s Giannis Antetokounmpo as he has shown flashes of being able to be a rather competent help defender. 

One of the most common actions the Portland Trailblazers ran in their stellar 4th quarter against the Raptors was a high screen from Larry Nance Jr which led to him immediately running to the rim. Upon catching the ball, the gravity he generated inside the paint led to several open-ish looks in either corner for guys like Nassir Little to potentially knock down a couple shots. 

Nance Jr was a perfect 7-7 against the Raptors, even draining a shot from long-range as well. It’s safe to say that having a rim-running, vertical spacing, and assist hungry Larry Nance Jr will be quite ideal for playing back-up for Jusuf Nurkic.

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Will the Portland Trailblazers stick to their small ball lineup in crunch time? 

Chauncey Billups rolled out an extremely small lineup in the 4th quarter against the Toronto Raptors with Nassir Little replacing Anfernee Simons alongside Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Norman Powell, and Larry Nance Jr. 

The data on this lineup may be a bit misleading as in the 3 games that this lineup has been rolled out, they are a –2.7. This however, doesn’t take into account the fact that Fred VanVleet inexplicably lit them up in the 4th quarter of their game against the Raptors, draining quite nearly every single pull-up 3 he could hoist up. 

Overall, this lineup played solid defense against guys driving in downhill, while also getting out in transition. Nassir Little has also been a revelation of sorts for the Portland Trailblazers; a player we touched upon last fortnight as well. He’s shown the ability to be a player who can push the ball in transition, be aggressive off the catch, and knock down a decent amount of his catch-and-shoot 3s.

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Little’s defense was also the reason as to why Billups prefers to have him out on the floor in their small-ball lineup in place of Anfernee Simons. 

Do the Portland Trailblazers rely too much on Damian Lillard? 

Yes. They do. But that’s like saying, “The Golden State Warriors rely too much on Steph Curry.” Of course they do because Steph Curry and Damian Lillard are absolute world-class talents and deserve to have an entire offense orchestrated around them. 

This however, has proven to get extremely tricky when playing without him. Even in the worst slump of his career, having him out there with CJ and company is a thousand times better than having him sidelined. Their abysmal play against a depleted Denver Nuggets team is proof that the Portland Trailblazers need to have a backup plan for when Dame is not out on the floor. 

The floor spacing that Dame provides is essential to the Blazers offense and high screens leading to dishes from Lillard into the paint have become a sort of identity for the Blazers over the years. With a new coaching staff however, this is the perfect time to experiment with new lineups, a few more actions that don’t need to involve Damian Lillard every waking second, and defense. 

Defense is something that I did not touch on all too much this time around as, though it does not look as good as it is advertised, talking about the entirety of the Blazers’ defense in merely 15 games of play is not what I’m about. Look out for my complete thoughts on their streaky defense in the next fortnightly Portland Trailblazers update.