The Blazers haven’t been able to really build on their breakout season in 2015-16 in which they won 45 games and made the second round of the NBA Playoffs.
They are currently sitting at 17-16 and 8th in the western conference, apparently not where billionaire owner Paul Allen wants them to be.
According to a report from John Canzano of the Oregonian, Allen is getting antsy and has enlisted his team of advisors to determine the root cause of recent struggles.
Here is an excerpt from Canzano’s article:
“The lieutenants who work at owner Paul Allen’s Vulcan, Inc. mothership have been analyzing data and asking important questions.”
“Two NBA front-office sources said they were contacted in the last 10 days by the Vulcans and asked whether they thought Trail Blazers struggles were due to a broken roster or poor coaching.”
In my view the issue is overpaying for a mediocre roster. The Blazers went all in on giving large contracts to mid-level players in the 2016 off-season by paying Meyers Leonard and Mo Harkless about $10 million per season, Allen Crabbe about $18 million per season and signing Evan Turner for $18 million per season. They were able to deal Crabbe to Brooklyn to shed some of that salary this off-season.
Portland has a really gifted back court in Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, but beyond that they have an average to below average roster at best.
So if we are going based off of that, I would say the front office’s inability to correctly assess the value of their own players is more of the problem than coaching.
Either way, this is a bad sign and changes could be coming down the pipe in Portland.
