Scrimmage Salvation: Now the real stuff starts
Did we learn anything from the scrimmages? What questions are we asking?
The Portland Trail Blazers played their third and final scrimmage on Tuesday, falling to 0-3 in their scrimmages with a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Damian Lillard nor CJ McCollum played a second, while the Blazers also rested key players Jusuf Nurkić and Carmelo Anthony in the second half.
The scrimmages have been a mixed bag for Portland. Their first look together in Game 1 was awesome to see, with the emotion of Nurk being back lifting everyone’s spirits. Lillard took a backseat to everyone else to let them find their flow and then he didn’t play at all in the next two scrimmages. But we all know that Dame has a knack for coming out of nowhere, so we won’t worry.
Now I do not want to overreact to rotation decisions, personnel, or anything that happened in these games. I’ve made the mistake too many times of reading too much into preseason strategy. But since they are over and the real games start on Friday against Memphis, let’s take stock of what we know, or at the very least, what questions we are asking after these three televised scrimmages. But before we get to questions, let’s start with one of the solidified takeaways.
Stotts should start Collins over Whiteside
This is less of a knock against Whiteside and more of a praise for continuity. These teams have only been practicing together for three weeks, all since they arrived in Orlando, which makes continuity even harder to find unless you’re the Lakers and you’ve been having secret workouts together throughout the hiatus. Portland already has continuity built into a Nurk-Collins look and while I do find myself wondering about NurkSide in certain match-ups (like the Lakers), the flow just looks better with Collins and Nurkic together.
Offensively, both of them flow into their sets without any buffering time and both are willing to step out and shoot the 3-pointer.
Defensively, they communicate better together and they can switch things off to each other. Now, sometimes that switching can lend itself to laziness (read: opponents shooting the lights out against them), but for the most part, the activity and flow that the two bigs have together is the right move. At the very least, it’s the right move for Friday when they take on a frontcourt with a lot of diverse talent in the hulking Jonas Valanciunas and sharpshooter Jaren Jackson Jr, as well as rookie Brandon Clarke. Stotts also barely played NurkSide on Tuesday, so I don’t think we will see a ton of that on Friday, especially against a team as athletic as Memphis.
Anfernee Simons looks more patient these days, which is important
Maybe it was a bi-product of starting but Anfernee Simons looked pretty calm, cool and collected out there against Oklahoma City. He had 23 points, but we’ve seen him score plenty. What I really loved was how he scored and also how he used his dribble. He was more probing, taking dribbles to the side, and recognizing his personnel. Here, he realizes Steven Adams is closing out hard and he just blows by him.
If Simons can actually play with this type of patience, his scoring becomes an even bigger asset. The fact that he has his head up is already a step in the right direction. Damian Lillard told me earlier in the season he wasn’t worried about Simons because of how much work he puts in and it looks like Lillard’s belief is being rewarded. Simons had a brutal year, but he looks like he’s gotten better in the time away.
Can the Blazers get this Mario Hezonja?
I know that praising Mario Hezonja can be a fickle business, especially among Blazers fans, but I was happy to see what he did yesterday. His help defense literally got me to clap and was probably among the best of any of the Blazers wings and he didn’t lollygag when he had the ball, making quick decisions. His help defense was more reading his teammates and being aware of his role in the defense instead of trying to play some faux-LeBron free safety stuff. I know that Blazers fans would probably rather see Nassir Little or Wenyen Gabriel get those minutes, but it sure feels like Stotts is going to try to go with Hezonja first. At least in the last game, Hezonja played within the team, which is what the Blazers will need from the 9th spot in the rotation. Speaking of the rotation…
What will the rotation look like?
Terry Stotts has talked about approaching the 8 seeding games with a playoff-type rotation. And for Stotts, that usually means no more than nine guys getting in. So I will try my best to map out the rotation, but Stotts has always made a habit of making my predictions look bad when it comes to this stuff, so just keep that in mind.
Starters
Dame
CJ
Melo
Collins
Nurk
4 bench reserves
Gary Trent Jr.
Whiteside
Simons
Hezonja
I have Hezonja here because Stotts has consistently played him in every game. I’m also putting him here because it does seem like Nassir Little was a little behind the 8-ball after suffering a concussion and missing most of last week.
But no more predictions from me. Thankfully, it’s almost game time.