“Six to seven weeks.”
You could just about hear the collective groan from Portland Trail Blazers fans across the globe when those words were uttered. That’s how long the Blazers will be without their starting big man, Robin Lopez. The guy many had credited with being the single biggest factor in the team going from league-wide afterthought to playoff darling, will be sidelined for the better part of two months with a broken hand, suffered in the second half of Monday’s win over the San Antonio Spurs.
The most pressing question on every fan’s mind is, “Who takes his place?” Well, the short answer is that there is no single person on the roster who is capable of filling the void left the indispensable Lopez. It’s going to take a total team effort to replace RoLo.
Moving backup center Chris Kaman from his bench role and into the starting lineup is the obvious move, but that will have a ripple effect on the lineup and could end up as a net negative. Currently, Kaman is the primary bench scorer and only consistently viable option in that role. Pushing him into the starting unit could result in the bench reverting back to the abysmal state of the past two seasons.
The other option is promoting Joel Freeland to run with the big boys. Freeland has proven to be a solid bench player who brings some things to the table and rarely takes anything off. That’s just the kind of guy needed when surrounded by the dynamic foursome of LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard, Wesley Matthews and Nicolas Batum.
While Freeland may not be the individual talent that even Kaman is, he is the closest facsimile to Lopez from a skillset standpoint. What he lacks in traditional center size, he makes up for by excelling at the “dirty work.” He brings with him the toughness, rebounding and solid defense that Lopez so selflessly handles for his more celebrated compatriots.
And while Freeland may lack Lopez’s emerging post game, Joel’s offense has been coming around as of late. With everyone keying on the other 4 starters, he might be able to be surprisingly effective, similar to Allen Crabbe and Meyers Leonard in their brief stints with the starting unit.
Of course, Head Coach Terry Stotts could continue his Popovichian ways from earlier this season when a starter misses time by taking a player who is completely out of the rotation such as Meyers Leonard or (as they did last night against Milwaukee) Thomas Robinson to fill in for Lopez. Playing one or the other based on matchups, team needs and who’s playing best at the time would make some sense, as it would allow the entire bench rotation to remain intact, while allowing the youngsters a legit chance to finally prove that they are NBA players.
Both have the exhibited the physical capabilities to excel, and have even shown flashes of being able to contribute in their time in Portland. However, it always seems to be one step forward, two steps back for the pair of former lottery picks, typically regressing back to their old bad habits after every supposed “breakout” game.
If this were still a team focused on development, that may be somewhat acceptable, but on a team looking to compete for the Western Conference crown, that level of inconsistency will find you a seat on the bench, and fast. So it will be interesting to see if either can play well enough to keep themselves in the rotation long term.
With both players contracts up at the end of this season, this may the only extended chance each player gets to showcase their skills to not only the Blazers, but to every other team in the league looking for a backup big man to take a flier on next year.
Of course, if Stotts had any faith in their ability to turn extended playing time into consistent productivity, they would have likely already supplanted the limited, but effective, Freeland for minutes behind LaMarcus Aldridge. As it is, it would be foolish to put all your eggs in either of their enigmatic baskets when looking to fill the void left by Lopez.
In order to safeguard against a lack of development from the two young big men, expect to see more creative lineup wrinkles with players like Nic Batum and Dorell Wright playing the power forward spot alongside one of LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Kaman or Joel Freeland. This tactic becomes even more desirable with the return of CJ McCollum from his own injury, as the stable of capable guards and wing players has, once again, become much greater than that of reliable big men.
The other added benefit of having McCollum back in the lineup is that he adds a needed scoring punch to the bench unit, taking the sole burden off of Kaman to carry that load. If the Blazers can find even a little bit of success in short stretches from a lineup such as Blake-McCollum-Crabbe-Wright-Freeland, then that will open up Stotts ability to put the Blazers best lineup (Kaman playing with the 4 healthy starters) out on the court to close games.
As always with injuries, it’ll be important for players to step up and produce at levels that they haven’t been asked produce at so far. Whether that be asking for starter minutes and production from Kaman and/or Freeland, more consistent and dynamic scoring from CJ McCollum and Allen Crabbe, or simply any contribution at all from Robinson, Leonard and Wright, guys are going to have to pick up their game in order for the Blazers to keep pace in the fiercely competitive Western Conference race.
At the same time, while it is never a good thing for a team to lose it’s starting center for nearly two months, it’s somewhat fitting that his injury came against a San Antonio Spurs team who was resting three of its top four players, in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich has noted on multiple occasions how he feels resting those three players throughout the season was a major factor in their ability to blow through the NBA Playoffs last season en route to capturing their first NBA title in 7 years.
Sure, having your older players well rested for the stretch run is an advantage, as is letting guys sit out until the most minor of injuries heal, however, according to Popovich, that wasn’t the biggest advantaged gained. The real advantage came from being able to see every single player on his roster play meaningful minutes, as well as being able to see just about every combination of players get significant court time together.
He was basically forcing his own hand to tinker with his lineups so much that not only did he gain confidence in just about every player on his roster, those players also gained confidence in themselves that if Pop called on them, they could answer that bell. That’s invaluable when you are drawing up game plans to combat your opponent’s strengths and attack their weaknesses in a back and forth playoff series, or if your team is hit with injuries down the seasons home stretch.
The Blazers saw first-hand how injuries can produce a silver lining when Batum missed a few games earlier this season. Not only did the team not miss a beat, winning all four games he sat out, but, it led to the immergence of Allen Crabbe as reliable bench contributor.
Perhaps one of the Blazers mercurial young big men accepts that same challenge over the next few weeks, jumping into the rotation for the rest of the season. Or, maybe no individual player steps up, but instead, Stotts and company find a new lineup that proves useful later on in the season. Or, maybe the team flounders and struggles without its rock in the middle, leading management to trade one of their many young “potential” guys for a more ready to contribute veteran that solidifies the already improved bench even more. At this point, all scenarios are on the table.
No matter what happens, though, the Portland Trail Blazers will find out a lot about themselves in these coming weeks. In the (paraphrased) words of the great Michael Holton, every new challenge comes along with an opportunity. It’s how you address those challenges and how you capitalize on those opportunities that will determine your success. We may soon see just what this Blazer team is made of, and we may very well look back on this two month RoLo-less stretch as the turning point in the season. For better or worse.
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