Get to Green: POR preview

Wow, this was supposed to be a relatively quiet offseason. I originally wanted to bring back the same team as last year as I thought we did quite well. However, Nash decided to retire and we managed to offload Tyreke’s deal to Charlotte for a pair of veterans that, I feel, fit our system better. During free agency we added solid but unspectacular veterans in Ridnour and Battier.

We wanted to be patient with our core players. We received a lot of trade offers and accepted only one (Reke’s deal) as we think it’s best to give the players some time to develop, get used to playing with each other and show us what they can do.

The only change to the starting lineup this year is the addition of Avery Bradley, which is not really a change a he started at the end of the season for us and the playoffs. Now he is there full time and will be relied upon to provide toughness and defense every game. He will be starting alongside Damian Lillard, who proved last year that he is one of the best players in CSL averaging 24.4 ppg with 53% FG on 25.5 efficiency. Tobias Harris returns as our starting SF. Like Bradley, he is a tough defender with high IQ and excellent handling (0.6 TOs in 30 mpg). Despite all the trade rumours last season, LaMarcus Aldridge returns as out starting PF. He is a rare talent and we wanted to make sure he has a full season to show what he can do. Aldridge struggled offensively last season and spent half of the games on the injured list. We need to monitor his health this season even if it means reducing his PT slightly. Finally, we have Samuel Dalembert coming back at C. He played well as an enforcer inside. Happy with him coming back with same the role this season.

What we wanted to do this offseason:

Reduce TOs: we finished 7th in TOs per game last season with 13.1 despite Tyreke averaging 5 at some stage. We thought we could do better than that. Throughout the offseason we were looking at high Handling players with good IQ. Expect to see some good improvement there.

Road Wins: We had 4th best home record last season (33 and 8)but were horrible on the road (16-25). We thought one of the key issues was inexperience and lack of veteran presence in out locker room and on the court. This season, we wanted to add some veteran depth. With Scola, Williams, Ridnour and Battier we achieved exactly that adding 40 years of experience to the roster.

Three-point shooting:We were dead last in three pointers made last season. Largely because, for most of the season, Lillard was our only threat from downtown. Enter Louis Williams, Luke Ridnour and Shane Battier – all excellent three-point shooters. Bradley and Harris also made some good progress on that front. We like Bradley and Harris as our long-term players at SG/SF so will continue to invest time into their shooting. These changes will hopefully add 150-200 threes made this season which is what we are looking for.

Defense: we were middle of the pack team in terms of points allowed (ranked 14th at 101 pg). Wanted to improve there and we think having Bradley and Harris solidifying their roles as starting SG/SF makes a huge difference there. Both are 88 defenders and will be relied upon to make sure opposing guards/forwards are always working hard on offense. The return of Dalembert certainly helps and John Henson is one of the best defensive PFs in the league. Lillard is also going to improve there to reach about 65-70 so we are looking to have a strong defensive minded starting lineup with good support from the bench. We will be playing some aggressive pressure defense and, with a deep bench, foul trouble should not be an issue.

Lillard and Aldridge: We wanted to introduce some structure offensively and make sure everybody knows their role. We believe, with the current lineup, it is more clear who has the keys to our offense and who plays the support role. We want Lillard and Aldridge to take most of the shots with Lou Williams bringing some instant offense off the bench. We surrounded these guys with efficient players that can take it to the basket or hit an open jumper. No longer will there be any conflicts offensively where it is not clear who should be taking the last shot. Lillard is the main man, Aldridge is our second option and Williams is a gunner off the bench. I also like the development of Meyers Leonard offensively.

Bench: John Henson is back and thats good. He is an exceptional defender and can play 3 positions. He will be key in case Aldridge gets injured again. We believe Meyers Leonard will challenge Dalembert for the starting spot this season. He averaged a double-double per 36 last season and will only get better. We like him coming off the bench as an extra scorer for now. Luke Ridnour brings a steady hand at back up PG spot. Lillard will need rest and we are happy to have a veteran to back him up. We brought in Shane Battier to provide a veteran presence, championship experience and defense at SF. He will play behind and mentor Harris. We already mentioned Louis Williams whose scoring off the bench is key and Luis Scola will always find playing time as backup PF/C. Finally, we have Wes Johnson coming back to play some spot minutes. Jackie Carmichael is expected to be assigned to D-League to get some more playing time.

Steals: for some reason, every team I manage is not good at stealing the ball. Perhaps it is because I prefer defensive rating to stealing. We were not good at this last season (24th in the league) and this is definitely something that we are yet to improve this year. For now, Bradley will be leading us in steals per game and I am hoping improved defense will help to force more turnovers

Still a lot of work to do but I think we are on the right path. We finished last season with a 49-33 record. The West is tougher but so is Portland. Looking to crack that 50 wins milestone this season hopefully and make some noise in the playoffs.

Very nice in-depth analysis on your team!
You returned a great core of young talents.
Look forward to our Holiday-Lillard, LMA-Monero divisional match-ups.

Last but not least, go Blazers!

Nice reading.
You have everything pretty much set to make some noise that season. Nice to see you recognize your weakness and is trying to address them and improve.

As for your team.. I think you need more shooting at either one of the wings position, but your players are mostly young and have upside to develop. Also, your D looks great.

I always use Portland as my measuring stick to see where my team stacks up. I think we were very comparable teams when the league started, maybe the Pelicans were a little worse, but to be brutally honest, you have done a much better job building your team than I have with mine. I know I'm behind you guys in the rankings to start the season and need to do some serious work to my roster to catch up to you guys.

Nice preview!
LOL at the 'get to green' title  

I mentioned earlier that to me this team will have a great season. I really think you could fight to lead your division, even though there's some tough teams like OKC, MIN, UTA and even DEN. But I wouldn't be surprised to see you finish into the top4 teams in the wild west tbh, at least that would be my personal bet.

I like how your team fits together. You might have lost Tyreke, but I think Bradley is a much better fit for this squad eyes closed. Defensively this team is scary, and you have the weapons offernsively too. Lillard can only improve, and his numbers were already awesome last year. Next to Bradley he'll have even more 'touches' to dish and score, and that's really important for a player as efective as him.
Lastly I also like you frontcourt depth with Henson and Leonard. I could se them both stepping up to starters next year, don't think I'm saying anything crazy with that. Meanwhile Aldrdige-Dalembert also compliment perfectly with each other.

So with all that I would be really surprised if this team falls lower than the 5º seed in the west, with 3-4 being more realistic to me. We'll see what happens  

thanks all for your comments

We'll have great 4 games vs DEN this season that I am looking forward to. I am not a big fan of trading Cousins but you are much more capable GM than I am

Agree with Marcos that we need a more shooting at the wings. We'll see if I have breakup the Bradley/Harris lineup. I really like them both so want to see how we do with them in there as full-time starters first

happy that Rizzo and Jamal have faith in POR - makes me believe that I am actually doing something right if such legendary GMs support my efforts

Good preview.

I'm not sure how you guys'll perform with maintaining a scoring presence with Evans gone as he was a driving force for points production off the bench and it seems you're gonna lean on Lillard even more as a scorer but man you gave me fits in the PO's and I know you'll be successful.

I like that you swapped Evans for Bradley, he definitely fits the makeup of your starting 5 more and you'll have more shots for Lillard and LMA. Louis Williams will be counted on for bench scoring and he's your only real backcourt bench player, so he better have a good year.