5 Biggest Issues Still Facing the Portland Trail Blazers This Offseason

By Derek McVay

5 Biggest Issues Still Facing the Portland Trail Blazers This Offseason

Portland Trail Blazers — Portland was quickly shown the door in last year's Western Conference playoffs. Things didn't get any better this offseason. The Trail Blazers lost LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum, Arron Afflalo and others. The team is certainly expecting a rebuilding year as they still have some major issues heading into the season. These are five of their biggest ones.

5. 3-Point Shooting

Meyers Leonard

5. 3-Point Shooting

Meyers Leonard — The 3-point shot was a valuable weapon for Portland last year. Their team percentage of 36 percent was eighth-best in the league and fueled by shooters like Wesley Matthews, Arron Afflalo and Dorell Wright. All three of these players are gone and Portland is left with Meyers Leonard, C.J. McCollum and Allen Crabbe as its top three-point shooters from last year. None of them took more than 140 attempts.

4. Rim Protection

Mason Plumlee

4. Rim Protection

Mason Plumlee — Portland was a middle of the pack defensive team last year and finished in a tie for 18th in the league in blocks per game. The team lost its top two shot blockers in LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez. Lopez was establishing himself as a valuable rim protector. Now, Mason Plumlee will be asked to fill that void, unfortunately he's not nearly as effective a shot blocker as Lopez -- at least not yet.

3. Inexperience

Allen Crabbe - Tim Frazier

3. Inexperience

Allen Crabbe - Tim Frazier — As currently projected, Portland's starting five includes two everyday starters and three players who started a combined 72 games last season. Aside from a few veterans, the bench consists of mainly rookies and second year players who will likely see an increased role, perhaps before they are ready it. Expect a lot of growing pains for the Trail Blazers this year.

2. Scoring Options

Gerald Henderson

2. Scoring Options

Gerald Henderson — Portland lost four its top five scorers from last season -- five of its top six if you include late-season acquisition Arron Afflalo. This will likely cause Damian Lillard to see a lot more double teams this year. Somebody else needs to demonstrate an ability to hit shots and of the current four projected starters alongside Lillard, only one has a career PPG average over 10.

1. Team Chemistry

Damian Lillard

1. Team Chemistry

Damian Lillard — Portland lost four members of its starting five this offseason. Instead of searching in-house, they replaced the holes with 4 players from four different teams. It's going to take some time for each player to learn how to play with one another and learn each other's tendencies. Chemistry is going to be an issue early on for this group, and in this league, that's a very important part of success.

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Portland Trail Blazers

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