In a debut installment of a new feature, Marc Stein of the New York Times made a number of predictions for the upcoming year in basketball. The scribe ventures a guess that this is the year the Trail Blazers blow up their backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.
Stein writes that dealing one of the star guards would be the easiest way for the Blazers to balance their roster, something that could come in handy if the organization seeks to go in a new direction. Bear in mind, however, that Stein’s prediction applies to this year and not necessarily to this season.
Stein also makes a series of arguments that a pair of big names stay with their current teams, despite ongoing speculation to the contrary. The Times journalist says that LeBron James to the Lakers is no guarantee and that Cleveland stands a legitimate chance of retaining the King.
On a similar note, Stein reasons that DeMarcus Cousins isn’t likely to find the market teeming with attractive salary offers this season and that he’ll end up staying put with the Pelicans.
There’s more from around the league:
- One possible solution to curb the growing tension between NBA players and referees is to ramp up the discipline assigned to players who act hostile to officials. “The hammer has to drop from above,” one Western Conference team official told Ken Berger of Bleacher Report. “When you had David Stern and Rod Thorn there, none of this stuff was going on because they weren’t going to put up with it. I think we’ve gotten away from that. There’s something every night.“
- Four active front offices have made a dozen or more trade deadline deals over the course of their tenures, Bobby Marks of ESPN weighed in on them and the rest of the league’s executives in his latest for ESPN Insiders.
- There has been plenty of movement among the DraftExpress team’s list of the top 100 NBA prospects. Jonathan Givony of ESPN recently broke down a number of NCAA players who’ve recently seen their values rise dramatically.
There’s an equal amount of blame on both the refs and the players. Some guys are getting too unreasonable with the amount of complaining after every perceived non-call/foul called against them (Westbrook, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, LeBron). At the same time, refs seem to be issuing technical fouls for the slightest things sometimes and some seem to be completely ignoring players when the players try to make their case. Not saying the refs need to rescind the foul but when a player is trying to ask why they got called for a foul, just tell them why and say that’s how the game is going to be called. It’s up to the players and coaching staff to adjust to how the game is being called.
The media just really wants Lillard and McCollum to be on different teams huh? I can’t believe writers like Marc Stein and overpaid blabbermouths like Stephen A. get paid to speculate exactly how everyone in every comments section does.
I really like Lillard and McCollum, but Portland is never going to win anything with the two of them as their cornerstones. McCollum is undersized for a two guard and both are trending toward liabilities (or at least defensive holes) on defense. Portland’s roster needs a major overhaul and the quickest way to do so is to trade one of them.
When I watch Portland play, the problems are never CJ and Dame. They’re playing great defense with both of them and Shabazz Napier out there every night. 3 undersized guards and Portland is still top 7 in defensive efficiency. The problem is, outside of Aminu, they have no 3s or 4s who can shoot. And, outside of the 3 small guards, nobody can run the offense. Evan Turner is a “point forward” but every possession ends in a behind the back fadeaway, which I enjoy watching more than I’d like to admit. Connaughton is a great shooter but undersized to play the 3. We get great play from Ed Davis night in, night out. Though Nurkic has been very inconsistent, he’s at the very least a presence and rim protector and Zach Collins has stepped up. This team needs some more athletic wing shooters that can play stretch 4. Or just a stretch 4 like Mirotic who they wouldn’t have to give up McCollum for. The reason McCollum looks so out of whack in bad iso situations is because the ball movement is terrible for the 5 possessions before that and they give him the ball praying he can get a bucket. Maybe the problem is that they can’t coexist on the same payroll, but they definitely can coexist on the same basketball court.