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https://theathletic.com/1256616/201...-talented-and-most-experienced-team-weve-had/
This is the most anticipated Trail Blazers season since Greg Oden joined LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy in 2008-09, and Monday’s media day didn’t disappoint those who think the Blazers can build off their Western Conference finals appearance last season.
Coach Terry Stotts said it’s the deepest team he’s had in his eight seasons, and perhaps never has Neil Olshey — the architect of the roster — spoken more glowingly in September than he did Monday.
After watching more than a month of scrimmages at the Blazers’ practice facility, Olshey said new center Hassan Whiteside “has been a monster,” new wing Kent Bazemore has been “elite” on offense and defense and Mario Hezonja has opened the eyes of the veterans with his playmaking, saying the point forward “plays with thrust.”
The rotation is also expected to be bolstered by second-year guard Anfernee Simons, whose hype train kept rolling Monday when Olshey called the 20-year-old “as gifted of a basketball player as anyone I’ve drafted in my 15 years in the league” — a list that includes Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Armed with Lillard and McCollum, whom Olshey calls “the best backcourt in the NBA,” and six new additions, the Blazers expect to be in the mix in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
“We were in the Western Conference finals and we got better this offseason,” Olshey said. “But so did Houston, so did the Clippers, so did the Lakers … all the way down. If you are not getting better, you are falling behind out here. That’s the arms race.”
It’s a season that might look drastically different from any other in recent years. There are indications the Blazers will play faster, perhaps even with Lillard playing off the ball, and there are indications they will be more dynamic around the rim, with Whiteside representing the most above-the-rim center with which Lillard has been paired.
And for the first time in the Lillard era, the Blazers have a Hall of Fame veteran in Pau Gasol to offer what Olshey hopes is get-over-the-hump advice in the playoffs.
“It’s the deepest, most talented and most experienced team we’ve had since we’ve been here (2012),” Olshey said.
Now comes the hard part: Making it all fit, and making it all work. That begins with Tuesday’s first practice. In the meantime, here are five takeaways from Monday’s Trail Blazers media day:
Faster offense?
During the Blazers’ scrimmages over the past month, one thing has stood out to the holdovers from last year: The Blazers are playing at a faster tempo.
The reason is because their new wings — Bazemore, Hezonja and now a full season of Rodney Hood — are all adept at bringing the ball upcourt and pushing the tempo.
“I think this year more than any other year, we will be playing at a faster pace, just more possessions, and I think it will be that way because of our wings,” Lillard said. “Mario is a fast-paced player, pushing the ball in transition, passing ahead. He likes getting the ball passed to him, then getting downhill.
“He’s a really good playmaker in transition … same thing with Kent and Hoodie. So, with those three on the wing, it presents a different style for our team.”
One byproduct of that style is allowing Lillard, and to an extent McCollum, to play off the ball. It could be especially huge for Lillard, who expends so much energy breaking down defenses geared to shutting down his attempts to initiate the offense. If he can play off the ball, it will likely reduce his wear and tear, and also allow him to get more catch-and-shoot attempts, which are higher-percentage shots than those taken off the dribble.
“In the past, we didn’t have these types of wings who are scorer/playmakers like these guys are,” Lillard said. “Like, I’ve played without the ball a lot more than usual these past few weeks because these guys get the ball and just take off, and I’m catching and shooting the ball instead of making something happen and playing against a crowd and stuff. I would love it if we could continue that into real games because I was just like — sprint to sideline and they throwing me the ball.”
There is somewhat of a buzz inside the Blazers when it comes to Hezonja. They think they have found something special.
When players report for voluntary workouts in September, it is one of Olshey and Stotts’ favorite times to watch the team play. It’s when players are unbridled, playing freely and they get a glimpse at how teammates mesh or enjoy playing with certain players. It was during September sessions in 2015 when Stotts first realized Mason Plumlee was a talented passer and could play an important role in the offense as a facilitator. Last year, it’s when Jake Layman served notice that he was ready to be a rotation player.
This year, Hezonja appears to have made the biggest impression.
“Mario Hezonja has opened a lot of eyes,” Olshey said. “He plays with thrust, gets the ball up and down the floor. He has great size (at 6-foot-8), can handle, makes plays, and guys have enjoyed playing with him. They’ve really embraced his skill set and what he can bring to the table. They’ve empowered him to have the ball in his hands more.”
Lots of talk about defense
The Blazers were 16th out of 30 teams in defensive rating last season and Stotts said he wants a return to 2017-18, when the Blazers had the sixth-best defense.
A good place to start the improvement is Whiteside, who led the league in blocks in 2015-16 and then in rebounding the next season.
“I think having Hassan in the middle of the paint is going to be a bigger difference than y’all might realize,” Lillard said.
That presence in the middle is why Olshey said Whiteside “has been a monster” during September scrimmages. Stotts said he will continue with his pick-and-roll principles, which is ask the bigs to sit back and protect the paint, a strategy that will likely play into Whiteside’s large hands. If aggressive pick-and-roll guards like Mike Conley or Russell Westbrook want to get to the rim, Whiteside and/or Zach Collins will be waiting. If they are deterred or intimidated, they will be baited into taking a midrange jumper.
“Our coverages are going to allow him to excel on a level we saw a few years ago,” Olshey said.
The Blazers will boast a starting lineup that will feature a 7-foot frontline, with Whiteside and Collins noted defenders. Whiteside said one of the biggest eye-openers for him in Portland has been the defensive ability of Collins.
“He’s the best shot-blocker I’ve played alongside,” Whiteside said. “I’ve never played with anybody that can also block shots at a high level … so it’s going to be interesting for sure to see what the paint looks like.”
The Blazers’ defensive game plans were devised last season by assistant coach David Vanterpool, who has since departed to Minnesota. Nate Tibbetts and Dale Osbourne will now head the defense, and Stotts said the Blazers will try new strategies.
“I don’t see big changes fundamentally but I do think over the course of the season we will maybe experiment from time to time,” Stotts said. “When you have guys like Hassan, Zach and (Jusuf Nurkic) who do a great job protecting the paint, I think it’s prudent to keep them in the paint.”
The big men weren’t the only talking points on defense. Lillard noted Bazemore’s defense during scrimmages and Stotts pointed out that Anthony Tolliver is a smart defender.
Heard enough about Simons? Wait, there’s more
As if there hasn’t been enough news about Simons this summer, Olshey said he has grown an inch to 6-foot-4 (in shoes) and gained 10 pounds, up to 193, since the Blazers drafted him 24th in 2018.
“We confirmed it today, I was pretty excited about it,” Simons said of his height.
Simons will get a shot to be the Blazers’ backup guard — he will likely play point guard when Lillard is getting a breather and play shooting guard when McCollum is resting — and many inside the team are predicting big things. Throughout his rookie season last year, veterans were raving about the skills he exhibited in practices and said he would be playing on teams without so many veterans.
That praise turned out to be worthy. He started the season’s final game and had 37 points, six rebounds and nine assists against Sacramento. That was followed up by a Summer League showing in which he shot a sizzling 64.7 percent from 3-point range.
Now, with playing time headed his way, there apparently hasn’t been a dropoff.
“I think me and everybody else are seeing what we want to see,” Lillard said. “I mean, he’s been scoring the ball. … Ant has looked like the player that I think everyone would like to see. Just from scoring the ball to talking more. … I think his growth from last year to this year already is encouraging to everybody.”
Lob City comes to Rip City?
While Whiteside is heralded mostly for his defense, he offers something the Blazers have mostly been void of during the Lillard era: a dominant, soaring big who can finish above the rim.
Having a mostly landlocked center like Nurkic or Robin Lopez is reflected in Lillard’s lob assists per year: 17 as a rookie followed by eight, 10, 17, 15, 9 and 13 last season. By contrast, Whiteside last season in Miami converted 61 lob passes into baskets.
Having that above-the-rim element was one of the September highlights for Olshey as he watched the Blazers scrimmage.
“It’s been fun to watch,” Olshey said. “I think this is going to be really unique. We are going to see plays we haven’t seen much before in the random flow of the offense.”
Olshey said he expects all of the guards to benefit from Whiteside’s athleticism.
“It’s introduced a new creativity for them in how they deliver the ball,” Olshey said. “It’s mostly been bounce pass, shovel pass, but we haven’t had the guy who you can throw it up to in the vicinity of the rim and they go get it. So, I think for all of our guards it has opened up an ability to get the ball to guys in areas where before it just wasn’t an opportunity.”
Injury updates
Olshey said Gasol won’t be cleared for full practice until next week as he continues to recover from a May surgery on his left foot.
“We expect him to be ready for opening night, which is good news,” Olshey said. “He’s ahead of where we thought he would be based on the surgery timeline.”
Gasol, 39, played in 30 games last season, and only three after he signed with Milwaukee after his contract was bought out by San Antonio. He said he is “hopeful” he will be ready by the Oct. 23 season opener against Denver, but he doesn’t want to put pressure on himself to be ready.
“It’s not critical to be fully available for game one, even though I’m going to work for that,” Gasol said.
The timetable for Nurkic is more uncertain — and that’s by design. Nurkic, who broke his left leg in March and had surgery to place a metal rod in his lower leg, is progressing well, but the Blazers don’t want to pinpoint when he might return.
“We are going to stay purposefully vague at this point,” Olshey said. “He is working out, shooting, and he’s tracking on the proper timeline.”
He said the Blazers will announce any “benchmarks” Nurkic clears in his rehabilitation.
“He’s been great,” Olshey said. “He’s in great shape, his weight is terrific, right where we would want him to be if he was playing, and now it’s just a matter of increasing his load. When he comes back, we want him to be fully confident in the leg.”
This is the most anticipated Trail Blazers season since Greg Oden joined LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy in 2008-09, and Monday’s media day didn’t disappoint those who think the Blazers can build off their Western Conference finals appearance last season.
Coach Terry Stotts said it’s the deepest team he’s had in his eight seasons, and perhaps never has Neil Olshey — the architect of the roster — spoken more glowingly in September than he did Monday.
After watching more than a month of scrimmages at the Blazers’ practice facility, Olshey said new center Hassan Whiteside “has been a monster,” new wing Kent Bazemore has been “elite” on offense and defense and Mario Hezonja has opened the eyes of the veterans with his playmaking, saying the point forward “plays with thrust.”
The rotation is also expected to be bolstered by second-year guard Anfernee Simons, whose hype train kept rolling Monday when Olshey called the 20-year-old “as gifted of a basketball player as anyone I’ve drafted in my 15 years in the league” — a list that includes Blake Griffin, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Armed with Lillard and McCollum, whom Olshey calls “the best backcourt in the NBA,” and six new additions, the Blazers expect to be in the mix in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
“We were in the Western Conference finals and we got better this offseason,” Olshey said. “But so did Houston, so did the Clippers, so did the Lakers … all the way down. If you are not getting better, you are falling behind out here. That’s the arms race.”
It’s a season that might look drastically different from any other in recent years. There are indications the Blazers will play faster, perhaps even with Lillard playing off the ball, and there are indications they will be more dynamic around the rim, with Whiteside representing the most above-the-rim center with which Lillard has been paired.
And for the first time in the Lillard era, the Blazers have a Hall of Fame veteran in Pau Gasol to offer what Olshey hopes is get-over-the-hump advice in the playoffs.
“It’s the deepest, most talented and most experienced team we’ve had since we’ve been here (2012),” Olshey said.
Now comes the hard part: Making it all fit, and making it all work. That begins with Tuesday’s first practice. In the meantime, here are five takeaways from Monday’s Trail Blazers media day:
Faster offense?
During the Blazers’ scrimmages over the past month, one thing has stood out to the holdovers from last year: The Blazers are playing at a faster tempo.
The reason is because their new wings — Bazemore, Hezonja and now a full season of Rodney Hood — are all adept at bringing the ball upcourt and pushing the tempo.
“I think this year more than any other year, we will be playing at a faster pace, just more possessions, and I think it will be that way because of our wings,” Lillard said. “Mario is a fast-paced player, pushing the ball in transition, passing ahead. He likes getting the ball passed to him, then getting downhill.
“He’s a really good playmaker in transition … same thing with Kent and Hoodie. So, with those three on the wing, it presents a different style for our team.”
One byproduct of that style is allowing Lillard, and to an extent McCollum, to play off the ball. It could be especially huge for Lillard, who expends so much energy breaking down defenses geared to shutting down his attempts to initiate the offense. If he can play off the ball, it will likely reduce his wear and tear, and also allow him to get more catch-and-shoot attempts, which are higher-percentage shots than those taken off the dribble.
“In the past, we didn’t have these types of wings who are scorer/playmakers like these guys are,” Lillard said. “Like, I’ve played without the ball a lot more than usual these past few weeks because these guys get the ball and just take off, and I’m catching and shooting the ball instead of making something happen and playing against a crowd and stuff. I would love it if we could continue that into real games because I was just like — sprint to sideline and they throwing me the ball.”
There is somewhat of a buzz inside the Blazers when it comes to Hezonja. They think they have found something special.
When players report for voluntary workouts in September, it is one of Olshey and Stotts’ favorite times to watch the team play. It’s when players are unbridled, playing freely and they get a glimpse at how teammates mesh or enjoy playing with certain players. It was during September sessions in 2015 when Stotts first realized Mason Plumlee was a talented passer and could play an important role in the offense as a facilitator. Last year, it’s when Jake Layman served notice that he was ready to be a rotation player.
This year, Hezonja appears to have made the biggest impression.
“Mario Hezonja has opened a lot of eyes,” Olshey said. “He plays with thrust, gets the ball up and down the floor. He has great size (at 6-foot-8), can handle, makes plays, and guys have enjoyed playing with him. They’ve really embraced his skill set and what he can bring to the table. They’ve empowered him to have the ball in his hands more.”
Lots of talk about defense
The Blazers were 16th out of 30 teams in defensive rating last season and Stotts said he wants a return to 2017-18, when the Blazers had the sixth-best defense.
A good place to start the improvement is Whiteside, who led the league in blocks in 2015-16 and then in rebounding the next season.
“I think having Hassan in the middle of the paint is going to be a bigger difference than y’all might realize,” Lillard said.
That presence in the middle is why Olshey said Whiteside “has been a monster” during September scrimmages. Stotts said he will continue with his pick-and-roll principles, which is ask the bigs to sit back and protect the paint, a strategy that will likely play into Whiteside’s large hands. If aggressive pick-and-roll guards like Mike Conley or Russell Westbrook want to get to the rim, Whiteside and/or Zach Collins will be waiting. If they are deterred or intimidated, they will be baited into taking a midrange jumper.
“Our coverages are going to allow him to excel on a level we saw a few years ago,” Olshey said.
The Blazers will boast a starting lineup that will feature a 7-foot frontline, with Whiteside and Collins noted defenders. Whiteside said one of the biggest eye-openers for him in Portland has been the defensive ability of Collins.
“He’s the best shot-blocker I’ve played alongside,” Whiteside said. “I’ve never played with anybody that can also block shots at a high level … so it’s going to be interesting for sure to see what the paint looks like.”
The Blazers’ defensive game plans were devised last season by assistant coach David Vanterpool, who has since departed to Minnesota. Nate Tibbetts and Dale Osbourne will now head the defense, and Stotts said the Blazers will try new strategies.
“I don’t see big changes fundamentally but I do think over the course of the season we will maybe experiment from time to time,” Stotts said. “When you have guys like Hassan, Zach and (Jusuf Nurkic) who do a great job protecting the paint, I think it’s prudent to keep them in the paint.”
The big men weren’t the only talking points on defense. Lillard noted Bazemore’s defense during scrimmages and Stotts pointed out that Anthony Tolliver is a smart defender.
Heard enough about Simons? Wait, there’s more
As if there hasn’t been enough news about Simons this summer, Olshey said he has grown an inch to 6-foot-4 (in shoes) and gained 10 pounds, up to 193, since the Blazers drafted him 24th in 2018.
“We confirmed it today, I was pretty excited about it,” Simons said of his height.
Simons will get a shot to be the Blazers’ backup guard — he will likely play point guard when Lillard is getting a breather and play shooting guard when McCollum is resting — and many inside the team are predicting big things. Throughout his rookie season last year, veterans were raving about the skills he exhibited in practices and said he would be playing on teams without so many veterans.
That praise turned out to be worthy. He started the season’s final game and had 37 points, six rebounds and nine assists against Sacramento. That was followed up by a Summer League showing in which he shot a sizzling 64.7 percent from 3-point range.
Now, with playing time headed his way, there apparently hasn’t been a dropoff.
“I think me and everybody else are seeing what we want to see,” Lillard said. “I mean, he’s been scoring the ball. … Ant has looked like the player that I think everyone would like to see. Just from scoring the ball to talking more. … I think his growth from last year to this year already is encouraging to everybody.”
Lob City comes to Rip City?
While Whiteside is heralded mostly for his defense, he offers something the Blazers have mostly been void of during the Lillard era: a dominant, soaring big who can finish above the rim.
Having a mostly landlocked center like Nurkic or Robin Lopez is reflected in Lillard’s lob assists per year: 17 as a rookie followed by eight, 10, 17, 15, 9 and 13 last season. By contrast, Whiteside last season in Miami converted 61 lob passes into baskets.
Having that above-the-rim element was one of the September highlights for Olshey as he watched the Blazers scrimmage.
“It’s been fun to watch,” Olshey said. “I think this is going to be really unique. We are going to see plays we haven’t seen much before in the random flow of the offense.”
Olshey said he expects all of the guards to benefit from Whiteside’s athleticism.
“It’s introduced a new creativity for them in how they deliver the ball,” Olshey said. “It’s mostly been bounce pass, shovel pass, but we haven’t had the guy who you can throw it up to in the vicinity of the rim and they go get it. So, I think for all of our guards it has opened up an ability to get the ball to guys in areas where before it just wasn’t an opportunity.”
Injury updates
Olshey said Gasol won’t be cleared for full practice until next week as he continues to recover from a May surgery on his left foot.
“We expect him to be ready for opening night, which is good news,” Olshey said. “He’s ahead of where we thought he would be based on the surgery timeline.”
Gasol, 39, played in 30 games last season, and only three after he signed with Milwaukee after his contract was bought out by San Antonio. He said he is “hopeful” he will be ready by the Oct. 23 season opener against Denver, but he doesn’t want to put pressure on himself to be ready.
“It’s not critical to be fully available for game one, even though I’m going to work for that,” Gasol said.
The timetable for Nurkic is more uncertain — and that’s by design. Nurkic, who broke his left leg in March and had surgery to place a metal rod in his lower leg, is progressing well, but the Blazers don’t want to pinpoint when he might return.
“We are going to stay purposefully vague at this point,” Olshey said. “He is working out, shooting, and he’s tracking on the proper timeline.”
He said the Blazers will announce any “benchmarks” Nurkic clears in his rehabilitation.
“He’s been great,” Olshey said. “He’s in great shape, his weight is terrific, right where we would want him to be if he was playing, and now it’s just a matter of increasing his load. When he comes back, we want him to be fully confident in the leg.”
