In the wake of Thursday’s loss to Denver, which eliminated the Trail Blazers from the postseason, Portland players appeared to sense that major changes could be coming this offseason, writes Jason Quick of The Athletic. Star point guard Damian Lillard suggested that the team would have to go “back to the drawing board” following its first-round exit.
“We didn’t win a championship, so obviously where we are now isn’t good enough,” Lillard said, noting that the Blazers couldn’t beat a Nuggets team that was missing starters Jamal Murray and Will Barton. “I don’t know what a shakeup looks like, or what changes will be made or could be made, but obviously as it is wasn’t good enough.”
As Quick writes, the future of head coach Terry Stotts will be one of the first issues the organization has to address. Stotts has one more guaranteed year on his contract, with a team option for 2022/23. However, multiple reports have indicated that Stotts is on the hot seat, and Portland’s showing in the playoffs likely didn’t help his cause.
According to Quick, the Blazers will go through exit interviews with players on Friday before making a call on Stotts, and may wait until next week to make their final decision. For his part, the Blazers’ head coach, who has led the team to eight straight playoff appearances, sounded prepared for any outcome.
“My job security? I’m under contract … I’m sure just like at the end of every year, we are all evaluated,” Stotts said. “The players, coaches, management, we are all evaluated. We will see what happens. At the end of the season, when you lose, everyone is evaluated. When we lost to New Orleans (in 2018), got swept by New Orleans, we were all evaluated. So we will see what happens.”
Here’s more on the Blazers:
- While he has long been committed to Portland, Lillard figures to draw plenty of leaguewide interest from teams curious to see if he’s becoming any more open to a change of scenery, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. So far, there’s no indication that Lillard’s commitment to the franchise is wavering.
- Jusuf Nurkic didn’t sound certain about his future in Portland after Thursday’s loss. The veteran center’s $12MM salary for 2021/22 is only partially guaranteed for $4MM, but a source tells Quick the Blazers plan to guarantee the remainder. Still, Nurkic said he would’ve liked to play a bigger role, and was cryptic when asked if he wanted to return. “In the right situation, yes,” Nurkic replied, per ESPN’s Royce Young. Asked what the right situation was, Nurkic said, “We’ll see. I don’t know yet. Because this is not it.”
- The Blazers face a tricky decision on Norman Powell, who could command up to $20MM per year in free agency, Quick writes for The Athletic. Portland has interest in re-signing Powell, but it may not be practical to invest heavily in another guard if Lillard and CJ McCollum are still on the roster, since the star duo will earn $70MM+ in 2021/22 (and even more than that in future seasons).
- Powell’s future and that of Derrick Jones will likely be tied – at least in part – to whether or not Stotts returns, since his usage of both players was questionable, Quick says. Jones may not be able to match his $9.7MM player option salary on the open market, but it’s unlikely that he’d want to return to play for a coach that didn’t seem to value him, Quick observes.
Unlike Schroeder
Blazers have no problem to resign Powell 4 years $90 million
Next year Powell + Kanter = 26 million
Luxury tax $40 million
Or trade CJ to save tax
Time to deal Nurkic and bring in some guys with upside. He wants a big deal you know that.
Swap for MB3? Toppin and Knox? Something like that.
Portland was hurt by not having Zach Collins, but their rotation decisions were questionable throughout the season, and specifically in this series. I did pick Denver over them in 7, so not a surprising loss, but I obviously thought it was close…I also thought this was arguably the most talented/deepest team Lillard has played on so far, which makes it kind of tough. They needed more balance on the floor in their rotation. I still think it was a good trade for Powell, but the way they played almost made it worse for them. 1 of CJ or Powell should have been off the bench. Too many guys that need the ball on this team as well, so 1 or 2 of them shouldnt play together
Not sure about the future of Simons b/c he hasnt really improved enough to mitigate their issues defensively at the guard spots. That is an area that must be addressed. They need someone that can guard that guard spot, preferably someone that can play with Lillard or CJ
They’re not going to bench CJM. IDK how this is a good deep roster. The old Aminu/Harkless was better. Melo does take some heat off Lilliard, who seemed a bit tired of things.
Nurkic is signed for another year, but Toppin would be a great get.
Silli is hopeless. You can only save so much money by trading.
Yes, Powell played the 3 effectively despite not rebounding very well… only 6-3 & not physical, but he is better than Jones. Jones is forever a prospect. Although that could describe Powell until this year, a contract year.
Not the right year to trade McCollum… 3 years left contracturally.
Olshey should commit to Lilliard or not. If so, finally, trade the kids with value… Jones, Simons, Little, Giles. And Cov, who sadly may never peak. The financial situation is not that dire since these are not very crucial players.
As always it seems, forwards are needed.
Nurkic is good value.
Powell has never rebounded, that’s not his game. He’s at his best when he’s coming off the bench and shooting. You can’t have Dame, CJ and Norm in the same starting lineup and expect that to work. Something’s gotta give and someone’s gotta go. My bet is on Stotts and CJ.
That’s like trading away your dislikes. The GM at the other end would prefer getting your likes!
They’re going to fire Stotts, trade McCollum and Nurkic, and hope that’s enough to keep the faith with Lillard.
But I sincerely hope Lillard demands a trade to a contender if all the changes don’t work. He’s too good to waste his career playing on a mediocre team.
And as far as Nurkic, I distinctly remember reporting saying that Denver felt like they pulled one over on Portland when they got rid of him. He wasn’t happy being part of a one-two punch with YJokic in Denver. Evidently, getting touches was more important than winning.
That’s why if Collins was healthy, I said before the season Nurkic should come off the bench. Bigs like him get more touches in the 2nd unit
Collins is a bench player at best. And he’s always hurt.
I hear you, but I can’t imagine Nurkic’s ego would survive coming off the bench. He could have done that in Denver and all but refused.
It’s about being the starter, the man. Arguably that is more important than winning, especially if the the team already has DL & CJM.
Hey Jason maybe lefty. To help understand Nurkic, picture him thinking *as Allah wishes* or whatever Muslims say, when he’s done being less aggressive than you might like. Nurkic may not have optimal aggressiveness, but more from religion than softness. Anyway for $12mil he can be tolerated as long as that lasts (prob.1 more year).
I think of these things during Denver games vs Serbian Jokic. Same race and for a while, nation, yet a clashing ethnic history.
The feeling in Denver was definitely a case of “addition by subtraction.”
It cleared room for Jokic to get more playing time, and removed Nurkic’s me-first-me-only attitude while they tried to build the team-first basketball culture/mindset they have now. Despite how bad that 2017 draft ended up for the Nuggets, I think in hindsight they were glad to send an extra first-round pick just to get Nurkic away from the team.
Now, if only they could have a do-over on that Donovan Mitchell trade and sent him to somewhere like Orlando instead…
Portland doesn’t deserve pro sports, the locals barely even care about sports. I can’t think of a lesser deserving “sports town” that actually has a big 4 pro sports team than Portland. Just leave, Dame, you deserve better than this.
That’s a really bad post.
It’s Marty. If he’s not posting outlandish homer nonsense about the Warriors, he’s posting garbage falsehoods and trashing other teams.
Portland needs to get some defensive minded players. their problem is they need to outscore the other team to win. Same problem Suns had until they went more defensive minded roster.
They did add a couple of defenders, but then didnt use a couple of their better defenders, or used them mostly out of position, and they lost Collins, who is the only big they had that could defend pick and roll or space the floor, outside of Giles who they never used. They also never addressed defense at the guard spot, which has been a need for a long time, and was ultimately probably their biggest issue in that series
Collins essentially hasn’t played in two years. There is no evidence he can, could or will ever do any of those things.
I could see the Knicks overpaying for Powell to upgrade from Reggie Bullock. Then try to address PG.
A lineup of whatever they do at PG, Barrett, Powell, Randle, and Robinson, with Rose, Toppin, Quickley on the bench probably keeps them as a mid-level playoff team in the East.
Dame on the Knicks makes too much sense. No idea how it’d work, but an elite, bright lights pg is the key.
RJ, Toppin, Knox, Robinson, 4 1sts. Something like that.
As good as Dame is, that would destroy the Knicks. No way they’d pay that much (though you can subtract Knox as him being included makes their package worse). But at the same time, it’s probably not enough.
If you give up that much NY will be worse than Portland even with Dame.
My offer would be Obi, Knox, plus every 1st rounder we can legally send. Upside for Portland is they can start a rebuild without taking any salary back since NY can absorb Dame.
It would still probably require Dame requesting a trade to the Knicks, but the way the league is now it seems like guys go where they want so it’s possible if not probable.
Leave it to Marty not to know his sports history. Obviously too young to remember how popular the Blazers have been in their hometown since the Drexler Era when they were one of the best teams in the NBA (and his Warriors were cellar dwellers, as usual). Maybe Dame will get lucky like Clyde the Glide did in ’95 when he got traded to a championship team rich with tradition, the Houston Rockets.
For real. Portland is top ten in attendance every season for the past two or three decades, sometimes top five (more than you can say for Marty’s Warriors). Their only other pro sport is MLS, and the Timbers pull 20,000-25,000 fans a game, which is roughly their stadium capacity. Portland loves pro sports. They even used to pack out their minor league baseball team in the 70s/80s.
You are quite the Homer. Portland’s history is just as rich as Houston’s.
Trade CJ for Ben Simmons. Ben is a defensive monster and a genius passer. CJ would flourish along side Joel
It makes some sense. But Morey was balking at Simmons for Harden STRAIGHT UP just four months ago. I doubt he would take CJM for him.
In his timeless classic jam “Wasatch Front” Lillard mused the following.
“Far away from home and feeling so alone
A boy amongst men I ain’t even wear cologne
Girls call me MCM, I’m tryna be Jerome
The Jazz up the road I wanna play for Jerry Sloan”
Make it happen, can’t play for Jerry Sloan any more but from all I can tell though Quin Snyder is pretty cool.
Maybe this will be the offseason that the Blazers finally accept that the team can’t categorically improve with Lillard and CJM at the top of their roster and payroll. It may also be the last season that they’ll be able to move CJM and get back anything of significance, even significant cap space. Nothing else they do (short of trading Lillard) will really matter. Even if they don’t sign Powell, re-upping Collins (a RFA) is likely going to take them to the tax line, and they don’t have a 1st (or 2nd) in the coming draft.
Why would they keep Collins tho? He’s a brittle boy. Cut bait.
Maybe, maybe not. Injury history would have to be factored in. But there’s real upside. Being a ways away from the tax line, and in a re-load year, leads to more rational risk/reward analysis.
Problem is they have nothing to replace him with. And no young guys with upside.
Trade McCollum for desperately needed help in the front court on offensive and defensive side of the ball.
Re-sign Powell.
CJM can score but his defense is shoddy.
Nurkic is an oaf, has been injured too much of late (whether by freak accidents or bad luck or whatever other excuse). Trade him.
Only guys on this roster I want to see back next season are Dame, Powell, Covington. Other than them, everyone should be subject to a major shakeup.
They need to bring in more defensive minded players. Period.
Nurkic said “If it’s the right situation, then I’ll stay”. Hmm. I did say it was a mistake keeping him. At least he didn’t say what reporters wanted to hear with the same ” I love this city and fans speech” Nurk kept it 100. Hopefully Lillard can finally get some real help.
Maybe Nurkic should try to not get into foul trouble every game. He might have a bigger role.
How about trade G CJ McCollum to the NY Knicks for G Immanuel Quickley, F Obi Toppin, F Kevin Knox II, 2021 1st Round Pick???
That sounds like a lot.
But if it was up to Thibs, he’d trade all those young players for one more year of late stage Kirk Hinrich…
Forget that I don’t like it for NY …. is it any better for Portland? Unless you’re trading Dame too and going full rebuild.
Trade CJ, Nurkic, Little and a first round pick 2022 for Brandon Ingram, Steven Adams and 2 of the Pelicans 4 second round picks this year.
Ingram takes pressure off Dame and offers a completely different skill set. He’s got size, a great mid range jumper, good passing game, good rebounding game, good defence and with his age can be the future of the team. CJ is a great player but his skill set is to similar to Dames and it makes them easy to match up against.
Nurkic for Adams seems like a down grade and it is in areas but Adams offers more defensively, he’s gets after it on the offensive boards, he’s arguably the best screen setter in the league and he’s a great team mate.
Then as for the coaching, Powell and Jones Jr situations. I’d suggest going for a new coach, Stotts hasn’t been able to get them very far for a while now and with a change in roster should came a fresh new coach to help lead them. I’d suggest Juwan Howard, Jamahl Mosley, Sam Cassell or David Vanterpool. All 4 are well respected coaches who Dame would welcome and embrace. It’s just time for new ideas in Portland and these 4 would be able to instal something refreshing and with a new roster and some added belief they could accomplish something
Swap CJ for a 4 …Collins would be nice but I dont see a clear path there outside a tricky 3 team trade (I think Collins stays put newayz)
Dame can be the 1 & 2 , that’s pretty much the beauty in his value imo
This puts Cov solely back to defending 3’s his bread and butter
Stotts has to go and the Blazers need to break up the two star guards finally. Trade CJ for some wing help or a good big. Sign Powell to pair with Dame. Trade Nurkic because he doesn’t sound happy and his injury history. This needs to be a fresh start.
Portland and Dame is a classic example of a couple that should have broken up two years ago but got in a comfort zone and just became too lazy to do what’s necessary.
It’s time to rip the band-aid off, stop pretending things will be better if you give it more time, and just end the charade.