Post by Portland on Jun 7, 2016 15:41:05 GMT
The Trailblazers are coming off a frustrating season. We were ten games over .500 on March 20th and playing great basketball – 12-and-3 over the past 15 games. A solid playoff berth looked pretty certain and catching Boston for the six-seed was our very-achievable goal. Then our best player Antonello Riva went down for 49 days with patellar tendonitis. We went 5-11 from that point and finished 43-39, barely keeping our string of winning seasons going. The final indignity was finishing in a three-way tie for the 7th seed with the Flamengo and Jazz, but being excluded from the playoffs entirely in favor of the other two teams.
Well stuff happens and now it’s a new season of optimism in Portland. Just about everyone in the American improved so we face an even tougher road to the playoffs this year. But we feel we’ve made the available moves to improve. The draft landed us the intriguing Dave Winfield but he swiftly fell victim to our “#NeverYouth” scheme and was dealt. Free agency brought us in some filler, too, but basically we live and die by veteran trade acquisitions and this year won’t be much different. We expect to compete again for the post season. Here’s a breakdown of our team as we await Opening Day:
Antonello Riva, SG: Riva we hope to eventually move into our small forward slot, and he did play well there a bit last season, but he’ll start the year as a guard again. His ppg was over 20 most of the season until it dropped to 19.2 late in his truncated season. That’s still his best mark ever. He hit career highs in rebounds and assists, dishing for 6.2 of those per game in our high-motion offense. All of his shoot percentages were strong and his 11.3 EWA topped the team. He was our only all-star. His 3rd season with the team shapes up to be his best and we need it to be to make strides as a team.
Anatoly Myshkin, SF: The towering Myshkin returns at small forward for us. He’s a bit miscast in that position and lacks defensive chops there, but our team philosophy is to stuff the lineup with 3-point shooters so SF is where he ends up. His height makes up for some of his shortcomings we feel. Mysk led us in scoring at 20.6 ppg, his career best. 7.8 rebounds a game is also his top mark, and that’s a lot from where we play him on the wing. We employ him for his offensive game, which can be explosive. He torched the Spurs for 43 points on February 6th. He’ll be an option for us again.
Dino Meneghin, C: Dino doesn’t have the reputation around the ABCA as a big-time center but he fits our system like a glove and we love him. 8.7 rebounds a game and 4.2 assists per game are a great mixture, and he hits over a third of his 3pt attempts also. Only Sabonis and Saric had more assists at center last year and Dino turned the ball over far less often. Centers who take care of the ball are a nice commodity. Dino’s also entering his third season with the team.
Radivoj Korac, PF: The only new player to crack our starting lineup this year, Korac the Elder brings a lot of experience and muscle to our squad. There were howls of derision when we surrendered a first and two blue/blue players for him after he’d just been flipped for a second rounder by Cario, but we have zero concerns about that. He’s a big upgrade from Charles Oakley. For starters he gives us the shot-blocker we’ve frankly never had, and he’ll the best rebounder ever to wear the Blazer uniform with over 10 per game for his career. He’s coming off 20 ppg and yes, he can hit the three ball too. He won’t be asked to shoulder the crazy workload San Antonio and Boston put on him last season, so we don’t expect a drop in his efficiencies. His three-year contract is going to feel pretty heavy in a few years, but we think the reward this year will justify it.
Jamaal Tinsley, Howard Eisley, PG: Our point guard by committee system is admittedly the weak link in our team, but we don’t feel it’s weak enough to get depressed about. Lots of ABCA teams don’t have a great PG. Tinsley’s game is good everywhere but his shooting, so we take it as it is. Eisley off the bench is a great shooter coming off his best season. Between the two they led us to 4th in the conference in assists and 8th in the league, so we feel we could do much worse than this pair.
The Bench: Portland doesn’t give big minutes to its starters so having a good bench is a key part of our philosophy. Last year Bogdan Bogdanovic was our sixth man, a capable guy who we just couldn’t keep happy. So he’s gone in the Korac deal (and back on the perpetual trading block where he lived while he was with us.) In his place we have Big Shot Bob Horry, coming off a fine shooting season in Rio. Horry breaks our mold a little with his awful hands but we think he’ll be fine on the second unit. Another key sub for us will be Channing Frye – another three point wizard – who will see time at the 4 and 5. He had the best camp of any Blazer. The athletic Martel Webster will get plenty of minutes. His offensive game consists of long-range shooting (surprise) and he’ll backup Riva. Al Wood and Terrance Ross have slowly improved so they’ll see more action this year than in the past.
We think this is the best roster we’ve put together in my time as gm, and it has meshed really quickly for some reason. Now we have to play the games and see how the rest of the American treats us. We never come out of the gate hot but our early schedule looks manageable so we’ll play hard and hope for the best.
Well stuff happens and now it’s a new season of optimism in Portland. Just about everyone in the American improved so we face an even tougher road to the playoffs this year. But we feel we’ve made the available moves to improve. The draft landed us the intriguing Dave Winfield but he swiftly fell victim to our “#NeverYouth” scheme and was dealt. Free agency brought us in some filler, too, but basically we live and die by veteran trade acquisitions and this year won’t be much different. We expect to compete again for the post season. Here’s a breakdown of our team as we await Opening Day:
Antonello Riva, SG: Riva we hope to eventually move into our small forward slot, and he did play well there a bit last season, but he’ll start the year as a guard again. His ppg was over 20 most of the season until it dropped to 19.2 late in his truncated season. That’s still his best mark ever. He hit career highs in rebounds and assists, dishing for 6.2 of those per game in our high-motion offense. All of his shoot percentages were strong and his 11.3 EWA topped the team. He was our only all-star. His 3rd season with the team shapes up to be his best and we need it to be to make strides as a team.
Anatoly Myshkin, SF: The towering Myshkin returns at small forward for us. He’s a bit miscast in that position and lacks defensive chops there, but our team philosophy is to stuff the lineup with 3-point shooters so SF is where he ends up. His height makes up for some of his shortcomings we feel. Mysk led us in scoring at 20.6 ppg, his career best. 7.8 rebounds a game is also his top mark, and that’s a lot from where we play him on the wing. We employ him for his offensive game, which can be explosive. He torched the Spurs for 43 points on February 6th. He’ll be an option for us again.
Dino Meneghin, C: Dino doesn’t have the reputation around the ABCA as a big-time center but he fits our system like a glove and we love him. 8.7 rebounds a game and 4.2 assists per game are a great mixture, and he hits over a third of his 3pt attempts also. Only Sabonis and Saric had more assists at center last year and Dino turned the ball over far less often. Centers who take care of the ball are a nice commodity. Dino’s also entering his third season with the team.
Radivoj Korac, PF: The only new player to crack our starting lineup this year, Korac the Elder brings a lot of experience and muscle to our squad. There were howls of derision when we surrendered a first and two blue/blue players for him after he’d just been flipped for a second rounder by Cario, but we have zero concerns about that. He’s a big upgrade from Charles Oakley. For starters he gives us the shot-blocker we’ve frankly never had, and he’ll the best rebounder ever to wear the Blazer uniform with over 10 per game for his career. He’s coming off 20 ppg and yes, he can hit the three ball too. He won’t be asked to shoulder the crazy workload San Antonio and Boston put on him last season, so we don’t expect a drop in his efficiencies. His three-year contract is going to feel pretty heavy in a few years, but we think the reward this year will justify it.
Jamaal Tinsley, Howard Eisley, PG: Our point guard by committee system is admittedly the weak link in our team, but we don’t feel it’s weak enough to get depressed about. Lots of ABCA teams don’t have a great PG. Tinsley’s game is good everywhere but his shooting, so we take it as it is. Eisley off the bench is a great shooter coming off his best season. Between the two they led us to 4th in the conference in assists and 8th in the league, so we feel we could do much worse than this pair.
The Bench: Portland doesn’t give big minutes to its starters so having a good bench is a key part of our philosophy. Last year Bogdan Bogdanovic was our sixth man, a capable guy who we just couldn’t keep happy. So he’s gone in the Korac deal (and back on the perpetual trading block where he lived while he was with us.) In his place we have Big Shot Bob Horry, coming off a fine shooting season in Rio. Horry breaks our mold a little with his awful hands but we think he’ll be fine on the second unit. Another key sub for us will be Channing Frye – another three point wizard – who will see time at the 4 and 5. He had the best camp of any Blazer. The athletic Martel Webster will get plenty of minutes. His offensive game consists of long-range shooting (surprise) and he’ll backup Riva. Al Wood and Terrance Ross have slowly improved so they’ll see more action this year than in the past.
We think this is the best roster we’ve put together in my time as gm, and it has meshed really quickly for some reason. Now we have to play the games and see how the rest of the American treats us. We never come out of the gate hot but our early schedule looks manageable so we’ll play hard and hope for the best.
