When the "rotten" plan appeared on the desks of the Blazers' top brass, it was self-evident how bad and disappointing the Blazers had performed this season. Hovering on the brink of the playoffs, the league's longest-standing record to reach the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons, and Lillard's injury stop are all tidal waves crashing against the Blazers' levees, and the day when the levees will break. But this is not an easy decision for the Blazers, and even if they go down this road, it will be full of thorns.
So far, the Blazers are only 12th in the West End with 14 wins and 22 losses, and although it is only one win away from the 10th Place in the West Zone, falling into such a situation is definitely not what the Blazers want. In the first round of last season, the Blazers lost 2-4 to the nuggets, whose roundy team, Lillard has rarely been angry with the team and once attracted the covetousness of his teams. As a result, the Blazers did not recruit in the offseason, only with the new coach Billups to move Lillard to stay, who also decided to give the new coach a chance.
But from the beginning of this season, the Blazers appear to be underwhelming up and down. Just as James began to talk about retirement, Lillard also began to face the possibility of career without a championship, saying that "whether or not to win a championship does not define my career." After Neil Olch stepped down, at a press conference for the interim general manager, the new official Joe Cronin bluntly said that the Blazers need to adjust the lineup. "We're going to do that," Cronin said, "and I need to be cautious, but I also have to have a sense of urgency and start looking for opportunities." We are not afraid to make changes if needed. ”
Cronin continued: "We have had a solid team for several years, but we have also reached a bottleneck. What can we do to step into the pitch with our heads held high and confident we can compete? The biggest challenge we face is figuring out what changes we need. ”
And today, according to Sean Highkin, a reporter for "Open-air Grandstand Sports", when it comes to the possibility of falling apart from Lillard this season, Billups is noncommittal, saying only that they will hold an internal meeting to discuss. This answer is undoubtedly amusing.
Of course, there are also positive and negative views on whether the Blazers should be messed up.
There are two big arguments in favor of the rotten side: One is that the Blazers' problems this season come from the lineup, which exposes the shortcomings of the lineup more than Lupps's tactical choices.
Last season, the Blazers were second-to-last in offensive efficiency, but second-to-last in defensive efficiency. Billups took office and immediately moved his knife on the defensive. But as Kevin O'Connor points out from The Ringer, Billups instructed the team to be aggressive when defending against demolitions, with clips and delays at the top of the league, but opponents still scoring like probes. As a result, the Blazers' defensive efficiency continued to bottom out this season, and it is now the bottom of the league.
On the defensive end, the Blazers' arsenal is already insufficient, and Billups often let Nurkic, who should have been guarding the basket and moved slowly, pick up and delay, which made the inside door open, and Nurkic was also in a dilemma; and Billups drew other position players to defend the opponent's interior line, but also exposed the embarrassment of the lack of height of the team's players. To make matters worse, McCollum took sick leave and Lillard started the season in poor shape, which also made the Blazers no longer able to walk on one leg of the offense.
So, since the Blazers' root cause comes from the lineup itself, there seems to be no other way but to tear it down and start over. Putting McCollum on the shelves after he recovers may be a way to go, but there are also voices in the industry that sending away a quasi-All-Star player will have limited promotion for the team.
The second is that the Blazers fell into the lottery this year to keep the first round pick, which made it meaningless for them to make the playoffs through the playoffs. In a three-way deal involving Markkanen and Nance Jr. at the end of August last year, the Blazers sent the bulls in the first round of lottery protection this year. Therefore, there is a voice that believes that unless the Blazers can climb to the top 6 in the West Zone (without playing the playoffs), it is better to swing in order to get a high pick. But the Blazers are currently 4.5 wins away from 6th place in the West End.
The concerns of the opposing side of the swing center on one point: will Lillard, who can accept the absence of a crown, accept the pendulum? Will rushing to the table hasten Lillard's departure?
You know, Lillard has turned 31, and Harden is restless at this age, and finally went to the Nets to catch the tail of his peak. If this season is bad, it means that Lillard wasted another year of peak time, and then he has to wait patiently for the rookie to mature. In other words, if the Blazers easily embark on the path of spoilage, it would give Lillard a great reason to leave.
In short, the Trailblazers now face a choice. If it is broken, lillard may whisk his sleeves away, and for a small market team like the Blazers, Lillard's star of this grade can be described as difficult to find with a lantern. And "small rich is safe" is not necessarily a bad choice for the Blazers; but if it is not messed up, once it falls out of the playoffs, Lillard is likely to leave, and at the same time can not get a high pick, I am afraid that this is really a chicken and egg fight. (Supine Braces/Hairy)