CBS Sports: Trail Blazers Need Major Changes

Is it time for the Portland Trail Blazers to blow it up? In his NBA overreactions piece, Sam Quinn of CBS Sports wrote that it might be time for the Blazers to make significant changes.

Quinn wrote that a team who loses a game when their best player scores 60 points, like Damian Lillard did against the Brooklyn Nets last Friday, probably needs better players surrounding that star.

The basic message here is that teams that can’t win when their best players score 60 probably shouldn’t have those kinds of players at all. Portland is currently in 11th place in the Western Conference. There is not a small forward to be found on the roster. Zach Collins is going to miss four months. They have the NBA’s worst defense at 116.7 points per 100 possessions over the past week. Lillard and CJ McCollum are in their prime. The rest of this roster decidedly is not. So let’s break it up.

On an overreaction scale of 1 to 5, Quinn has his Blazers take at 2. Quinn noted that the focus on reclamation projects isn’t going to help them in the postseason, and that the easiest fix would be trading CJ McCollum, noting Orlando as the most likely partner. The move would allow breakout sophomore Anfernee Simons a chance to start while getting them a defensive wing like Aaron Gordon. Either way, the Blazers need a change.

This Blazers team probably could salvage some form of contention with a significant trade. They aren’t in a position in which they need to consider dealing Lillard and starting from scratch. But this roster, as currently constructed, is no longer viable as a potential winner in the postseason. Something needs to be done.

Quinn has plenty of overreactions for other teams as well, such as Andrew Wiggins being a point guard now, the Lakers having one of the best defenses in years and Eric Paschall blossoming into a serious Rookie of the Year candidate (Blazer fans know that all too well). You can read the whole story here.