Portland Trail Blazers Roster 2021 Portland Trail Blazers Roster

2021 Portland Trail Blazers Roster Top Questions

How do the Blazers offseason moves work with their roster?

In a trade made with the Hawks, the Blazers acquired Kent Bazemore in exchange for Turner. This doesn't save a ton of money, but Bazemore does fit into Portland roster better than Turner did. He's great on D and has proved himself from the perimeter. The signings of Anthony Tolliver and Mario Hezonja are good to add some depth to the second unit. Trading Harkless and Meyers Leonard, the Blazers were able to acquire Hassan Whiteside. This is a good move since Nurkic is going to miss an extended period of the season due to his leg injury. Say what you want about Whiteside, but in my opinion it was a nice job by Portland to fill out the vacant spot. Is this the most glamorous offseason? Absolutely not, but the Blazers were able to add some talent around the core that has already proven itself, giving them a better shot to compete with these newly dangerous teams in the West.

How did the Blazers do in the 2019 NBA Draft?

The Blazers came into this draft with only one pick: 25th overall. With this in mind, you might be surprised to hear that they exited this draft having taken none other than forward Nassir Little. No one was projecting for the freshman out of the University of North Carolina to drop down that far. At the onset of the college season, he was projected to be a top 5 draft pick. Roy Williams, the coach of North Carolina, typically doesn't start freshman, so some are speculating that Little found it hard to get a rhythm going by not starting. He definitely still has a lot of potential that feels untapped. and we'll see how things shake out once he picks up some minutes in the NBA. As of now, he seems like he's going to be a lock-down defender type, comparable to Andre Iguodala. He also provides a nice skillset on the offensive side of things, so he'll compliment McCollum and Lillard nicely.

Do the Blazers have a shot at making it deep into the playoffs?

You can't help but feel bad for teams in the West that were eagerly awaiting for Golden State to split up just to have teams like the Lakers and Clippers all of a sudden become insanely good in a single offseason. As of now, we can only project, but I just don't see the Blazers having what it takes in their roster to beat the duos of LeBron/Anthony Davis or Kawhi/Paul George. My prediction is that the Blazers will win 2 playoff series and then fall to one of those two teams.