In the 2014-2015 season, Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts was proud to claim that throughout the majority of the year, he had a consistent starting five in LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Nicolas Batum, Wesley Matthews, and Damian Lillard.
After the starting five of the 2014-2015 season disintegrated and only Lillard returned, the Trail Blazers obviously had to fill shoes of the other four positions.
Filling the roles of fan-favorite players was not going to be an easy task.
That being said, the Trail Blazer organization was charged with the duty of rebuilding the roster and filling the roles of the starters.
If that wasn’t enough, they had to fill the spots of other players that were bartered away in the hope of convincing the starting players on staying with a higher wage.
When all was said and done, the Trail Blazers’ organization only had six returning players: Damian Lillard, Tim Frazier, CJ McCollum, Allen Crabbe, Meyers Leonard, and Chris Kaman.
With only six returning players from the last year’s roster on the current year’s roster, the Trail Blazers were tied with the New York Knicks having the least amount of returning players from the previous year.
Needless to say, the Trail Blazers were in desperate need of finding talented players to fill key roles. They had a short amount of time to fill a lot of empty space.
Although the job may have seemed overwhelming, I feel the Trail Blazers did a fairly timely and efficient job drafting and recruiting arguably some of the best under-the-radar talent in the NBA.
At the end of free agency, they added 11 new players to the roster: Phil Pressey, Pat Connaughton, Gerald Henderson, Mike Miller, Luis Montero, Maurice Harkless, Al-Farouq Aminu, Ed Davis, Noah Vonleh, Cliff Alexander, and Mason Plumlee.
With an abundance of new talent and losing almost the entirety of the starting lineup from the previous year, it will definitely be another transitional year for the Trail Blazers.
Being another transitional year, it makes the fans wonder if the starting lineup will be as static as it was last year or if there will be a more tailored approach to each game.
It goes without question that the starting role of point guard goes to Damian Lillard, who is the new face of the franchise. But what about the other positions?
On ESPN.com, the other listed starters are Gerald Henderson, Al-Farouq Aminu, Ed Davis, and Mason Plumlee.
Although these may seem like solid choices for each position, we may see various starting lineups tested out throughout the course of the season.
Looking strictly at the depth chart, I would say the position that is in the most contention right now would be small forward.
Being that we have five listed small forwards on the roster and being that all of the listed players have very similar averages, the competition for this position will be fun to watch when the NBA season tips off.
All of the players on the roster are very talented and I believe the new members will definitely get the welcoming response from this very active fanbase that they deserve.
I, as well as many other Trail Blazers fans, cannot wait to see the ways in which each and every player is used to the maximum potential they have.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
