On the surface of things, the Portland Trail Blazers are doing alright. In some areas, they’re doing great, actually. As one of the few teams in the top ten in both offensive and defensive rating, as well as a team that prides itself on taking away the three-point shot, the stats largely say that this is a team that could go far in the postseason.
The individual efforts from the stars and their supporting cast have been there, for the most part. LaMarcus Aldridge is eating his peers alive on the offensive end; some of the things I watched him do to the Los Angeles Clippers’ Blake Griffin on Wednesday aren’t printable. What I can say is that his herky-jerky moves, shot fakes, and nasty turnaround flummoxed the younger Griffin.
It also didn’t hurt that Griffin has short arms for a 6-10 guy. Brute strength and leaping ability don’t help much when you’re on a guy’s back, especially if that guy is almost as strong and has much longer arms. With the center, DeAndre Jordan, in foul trouble, Griffin was thrown to the wolves, and Aldridge has been excellent this year in finding a mismatch and exploiting it with callous precision.
Damian Lillard has made headlines with clutch play, but his overall production has increased this season (22/5/6, 45% FG%, 39% 3PFG). His defense has noticeably improved as well; Portland coach Terry Stotts hasn’t placed Nicolas Batum or Wesley Matthews on opposing point guards with regularity this season, except when facing Chris Paul.
Matthews has made the most three-pointers this season, and his post game is a nice change-of-pace skill. Like I mentioned in one of my first articles for Oregon Sports News, his post game enables him to punish teams that try to hide weak defenders on him, in order to take away the long ball.
Wes is little more than a “3-and-D” player, but those players have incredible value in today’s NBA; Matthews is going to be a very rich man very shortly, whether in Portland or on another contender who could use an above-average player at the league’s weakest position, shooting guard.
Before his injury, Robin Lopez was the anchor for a top-three defense, as well as a very large human capable of snaring rebounds like a lizard snagging crickets. Seriously, watching loose balls gravitate towards the man was like watching the iguanas we had when I was a child snarfle bugs with those quick tongues.
The team goes eight-deep, which is an improvement over last season, when the five starters and Mo Williams were the only capable players on the roster. If the injuries that have plagued the Blazers in 2014-15 happened last season, there’s no way that team makes the playoffs, let alone win a series.
Steve Blake and Chris Kaman (Air Sasquatch to me; my father nearly died with laughter when I yelled it after Kaman smashed home a running jam on Wednesday) have flaws, but they play the roles they’re asked to play very well. Joel Freeland has emerged as the other backup big, his consistency and rugged rebounding separating him from the more athletic Meyers Leonard and Thomas Robinson.
I will add that Leonard has played very well since Freeland went down with an injury; watching him drill open jumpers against the Clippers was a nice surprise. If Matthews and Batum were as accurate as Meyers, Portland would have won running away.
Allen Crabbe and CJ McCollum have battled for the third wing spot, with neither winning. McCollum, due to his ball handling skill and status as a lottery pick, has gotten time instead of Crabbe, but that to me is a mistake. I’m not impressed with CJ’s game. His short stature, inconsistent shot, and frail body are all red flags that Stotts would use to plant McCollum to the pine, if Crabbe and Will Barton weren’t even more inconsistent.
That issue on the wing brings us to the true subject of this column: Nicolas Batum. One could argue that the rest of the team, with the exception of the young wing players, are doing what they’ve been expected to do, or have overachieved like Matthews.
The wretched sequence Batum had late in the game Wednesday, however, highlighted what we all knew. He’s in a major-league slump, the stink of suck all over him like white on rice.
The airball-airball-turnover Triple Threat of Awfulness Nic barfed up cost the Blazers valuable possessions, and when you have a scorer like Jamal Crawford going bonkers, you can’t afford any lulls on offense. Crawford’s deeeeeeep three with two seconds in the shot clock with four minutes to go broke a tie, and Portland’s spirit. The Blazers never got closer than three after that.
Batum’s disgusting display of basketball ineptitude was the worst I’ve ever seen a professional basketball player play, and I’ve been privy to some awful basketball. To air mail two straight shots, then get your dribble ripped out from under you…I mean, you expect that from some rec-league scrub playing above his level, not NICOLAS FREAKING BATUM.
I’m afraid I really don’t have an answer to the question that will likely decide Rip City’s playoff fate: What in the blue blarney is wrong with Nic Batum?
With the All-Star break being extended, perhaps getting away from the game for a few days will be all Batum needs. Some players do come back recharged after a few days of doing nothing, and I suppose a few days of doing nothing will get Batum’s body rested and his head screwed back on.
Batum’s struggles (struggles being mild with the wordage) only expose the Blazers’ problems further. Rumors of the Blazers’ Basketball Czar, Neil Olshey, pursuing a potential trade for the Denver Nuggets’ Wilson Chandler, or his teammate on the wing, Arron Afflalo.
Olshey being active is a good thing, but with the Nuggets suddenly ahead of the free-falling Oklahoma City Thunder in the race for the West’s eighth playoff spot, the lure of a couple home games’ worth of revenue could be too much for the Nuggets’ management to resist. Serving as a sacrificial lamb for the Golden State Warriors is not a recipe for long-term success, but Denver’s outlook on their roster changes literally by the day, even as they start selling off pieces of the roster.
I highly doubt Denver will beat out the Thunder, New Orleans Pelicans, or the current eight seed Phoenix Suns, but they might be tempted to hang on to their players a little longer than they would if the team stank. Afflalo, in particular, seems like a good bet to stay; the Nuggets gave him up once already, and they won’t part with a solid player like that for anything Portland could offer.
Chandler would be easier to pry away, but with Danilo Gallinari’s constant injury woes, Denver also has some incentive to keep Chandler beyond the irrational playoff chase. A likely late-first round pick and Robinson’s expiring deal, along with a guy who’s on a rookie contract, would be the most Olshey could offer.
Unless Denver gets desperate, they won’t take what Portland’s offering for two reasons: like I said, they still hold out hope for an out-of-nowhere surge to the eighth seed, and they could also hope to get something slightly better for Chandler and especially Afflalo from another team needing wing help–and almost everybody needs good wings. Denver won’t have a shortage of suitors, and some of those teams will have a player Denver covets, or will have a slightly higher draft pick to dangle.
Unless Olshey really puts the screws on, I don’t see the Nuggets suddenly taking the Blazers’ low first-rounder and bench scraps and giving up a quality player in return. Since they show no immediate inclination to detonate the roster, the leverage is tilted towards Denver. I think they’re wrong to think that way. It’s terrible planning for the future. I just don’t thing the Nuggets care right now.
Portland could look at other ways to solidify their rotation, but what will ultimately decide their season is the recovery of Nicolas Batum, the Swiss army-knife we all know and love. If Batum can round into form during the second half of the season, he could render all the trade talk moot.
Rip City will be watching and waiting.
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