The Portland Trail Blazers are a young team, searching for ways forward into a future that seems hopeful, but still looks unclear. Their status in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery is unknown but their percentage for a high pick is likely to be low. Future picks, swaps, and the potential for trades open up possibilities yet unseen, but what will the Blazers be aiming at? That’s the subject of today’s Blazer’s Edge Mailbag, the first of a two-parter over the next couple days.

Dear Dave,

We’ve seen what this team is and isn’t at this point. I don’t expect to be surprised during the last parts of the season unless somebody off the bench steps up with extra minutes that we haven’t seen yet. Now that we know more what we’re working with I want to ask you what you think the team needs most going forward? I know it’s talent but talent that does what? Also what worries you most about the team as it’s currently constructed, if anything?

Lucas

I can name you three things immediately, in no particular order. These come with the caveat that time, itself, should be an ally to the Blazers as their current players develop. But even if members of the roster grow, these things will still be valuable.

Agile Center Defense

The Blazers do a few things really well defensively. They get back in transition when they care to…a trait I assume will improve as the stakes for games get higher. They pressure the ball full-court and make it harder for the opponent to set up. They also close to the perimeter well at the wing positions.

At the beginning of the season they were selling out to make sure the interior was safe. As time has progressed, they’ve played more to their natural strengths, letting their defenders loose to hound three-point shooters. This has proven a more successful tactic.

Interior defense remains an issue. When forwards and shooting guards are flying towards perimeter players, who’s minding the store?

The Blazers would flourish with a center who does three things:

Eats space and blocks shots inside without needing help.
Covers to the arc and recovers without losing containment.
Doesn’t kill the offense.

Current rookie Donovan Clingan seems to fulfill the first criterion. We’ll need to see if he can handle items 2 and 3.

If Portland had a defensive backstop in the middle, they could flourish with Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, and either Jerami Grant or a Jerami Grant Analog (read: lanky, agile, 3-and-D modern power forward) at the 2-3-4 positions. If the defense has to keep expanding and contracting like a bellows, good opponents are just going to hit the Blazers where they ain’t, going inside when Portland chases to the perimeter and shooting threes when they don’t.

Three-Point Shooting

This is obvious, given the modern game, but obvious isn’t wrong. The Blazers need more shooting up and down the lineup. When they hit threes, Portland has a hard time losing. When they don’t, every quarter is a struggle.

Fortunately, distance shooting can be a learned skill. Players develop is as careers progress. There’s hope that Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, and Deni Avdija can raise their percentages while Grant, Anfernee Simons, and Toumani Camara maintain.

In aggregate, though, the Blazers are still 25th in the league in overall three-point shooting. That needs to improve to provide more cushion during good games and consistency during lulls.

A Scoring Engine

Right now the Blazers lack a scoring engine, a guy like Trae Young, Anthony Edwards, or Jalen Brunson who can take over games, make opponents fear him, and thus draw constant attention. It’s less about averages, more about puncturing and bending the defense, causing them to move, leaving teammates farther open for good plays and shots.

The Blazers play unselfishly for the most part. That’s a great quality. But they’re passing the ball against intact, balanced defenses because no single Portland player demands extra attention consistently enough to change the other team’s defensive scheme. That means wherever the ball goes, a defender is there. You can append asterisks for non-scorers; defenses will choose to leave certain players open in order to defend others better. But you seldom see the Blazers breaking opposing defenses, or even making them work that hard.

That initial, overwhelming offensive threat—the guy that makes the closest three defenders nervous from his mere presence, even when he doesn’t have the ball—would go a long way towards making scoring easier for everybody on the team in addition to providing those critical 24-25 points himself.

Those are the three items I have. How about you? Share your own thoughts in the comment section below and stay tuned as we address the second part of the question—worries about the roster—tomorrow!

You can always submit your questions to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer as many as we can!