By Ben Arthur |
After a week of training camp, the Portland Trail Blazers kicked off preseason play Monday night with a 109-105 loss to the Sacramento Kings.
With only one preseason game under their belt, it’s too early to tell whether this loss is foreshadowing the entire season. After an offseason full of change, Blazers fans have many unanswered questions about the starting lineup. Damian Lillard, who put up 17 points in the game, is the only starter returning from last season.
The story has been beat over the head, Lillard needs to step up. Lillard will be leading this team. He is the hero of this story. His trend of increasing in points per game each season needs to continue. Nicolas Batum was traded away in June. LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews and Robin Lopez all departed the team via free agency in July. The Blazers completed the overhaul of the roster by adding eight new players in the off-season.
How will the new Blazers fit in the team’s future going forward?
Head coach Terry Stotts admitted that it is still to be determined during Media Day last week.
“There are going to be a lot of players that earn minutes throughout the season,” Stotts said. “It’s certainly not set in stone like it has been in the past.”
Big man Mason Plumlee, acquired by Portland in a trade with Brooklyn, will need to pick up a large portion of the slack left by Aldridge’s 23.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in the front court. Plumlee is a young and athletic big man with a lot of upside, but through his first two seasons in the NBA he is yet to prove that he can put up consistent numbers.
Second year forward Noah Vonleh impressed in the first week of training camp, but fell short in clutch moments during the first preseason game. The 2014 lottery pick is coming off a disappointing rookie season in Charlotte after appearing in just 25 games.
With a slew of inexperience on the roster this year, it is not all up to Lillard, other returning Blazer players must be a source of leadership on the court for the team to be competitive in the Western Conference this season.
Guard CJ McCollum and center Meyers Leonard will have to make the jump to producing starter-level numbers. Both played better in the playoffs than they did in last year’s regular season, McCollum in particular. His points per game skyrocketed to 17 in the playoffs as opposed to averaging just under seven during the regular season.
If McCollum doesn’t become a consistent scoring threat for the Blazers alongside Lillard, the team will struggle offensively.
The Trail Blazers finished 51-31 in the regular season last year, good for fourth place in the tough Western Conference. The team has made the playoffs the last two seasons. In 2014, they made it as far as the Conference Semi-Finals.
Expectations are lower this year, but Lillard urged critics to not count the team out during the Blazers’ Media Day.
“I’m not sitting here saying that we’ll make the Playoffs,” Lillard said. “I would like to and that’s what (the team’s) goal is, but it’s not as far-fetched as people might make it seem.”
After the first game, Lillard said he was happy with the team’s overall performance and despite the fact that it is preseason, he is treating the games seriously.
“It’s preseason but we’re not an old team, we’re a young team, so for us, it’s the real thing,” Lillard said. “I’m not going to come out here and say ‘Oh it’s just the preseason,’ and walk around, I’m going to play the way that I play.”
During a training camp inter-squad scrimmage, Plumlee hit a no-look, back-to-the basket three pointer to give his team the win at the buzzer.
It is hard to say what the Blazers’ record will be by season-end at this point in time. For that matter, any team.
It’s too unpredictable.
Ben Arthur is a sports reporter for The Beacon. He can be reached by email at arthur17@up.edu or on twitter @KingArthur_425.
