Trail Blazers’ Starting Five Ranked No. 13 in the NBA

The Portland Trail Blazers’ starting lineup of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Maurice Harkless, Al-Farouq Aminu and Jusuf Nurkic was ranked No. 13 in the NBA, according to Adam Fromal of Bleacher Report’s metrics rankings. The group posted a 6.5 net rating in 456 minutes together:

But it may be the lesser names who elevate the team’s ceiling and push this group into the top 10. That could happen if Jusuf Nurkic develops consistency on the offensive end or Al-Farouq Aminu proves he’s developed his shooting stroke enough to draw constant off-ball attention.

Don’t count out the latter development. Not after Aminu connected on his 4.9 triples per game last year at a 36.9 percent clip.

Portland is ahead of the Indiana Pacers (14) and below the Oklahoma City Thunder (12). You can read the whole rankings here.