The Portland Trail Blazers’ starting lineup ranks just 25th of 30 NBA teams, according to Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo! Sports. Rohrbach, who has been with Yahoo! for over a decade, isn’t confident that Portland’s starters stack up against the rest of the league. He has the following as the Blazers’ projected starting lineup, with the individual player ranking given their pecking order in parentheses:
No. 1 option: Deni Avdija (28)
No. 2 option: Shaedon Sharpe (25)
No. 3 option: Jrue Holiday (15)
No. 4 option:
Toumani Camara (21)
No. 5 option: Donovan Clingan (18)
According to this list, Jerami Grant is not starting, which… let’s just say remains to be seen.
Also according to this list, Deni Avdija is the Blazers’ best player, which tracks given what he showed in the second half of last season, but it also means Avdija is ranked just the 28th-best first option in the NBA only ahead of former Blazer (now Washington Wizard) CJ McCollum and Brooklyn’s Cam Thomas.
Meanwhile, Shaedon Sharpe ranked as just the 25th-best second option, something Blazers brass and fans alike would love to see shift this season. Jrue Holiday came in as the 15th-best third option, Toumani Camara as the 21st-best fourth option (this seems really wrong, but whatever), and Donovan Clingan as the 18th-best fifth option.
Whatever quibbles you or I might have with this list and the player rankings, one thing becomes clear which I think is important: the Blazers don’t have a bona fide, cast-in-steel star for the years ahead. Is that player on the roster? If not, can they be acquired by trade? If not again… how many more years of maximizing lottery odds are we in for, or will the team try to just do it by committee of pretty good players?
Also, if the Blazers really have the 25th-best starting lineup in the league, it’s very hard to see how they break their over of 34.5 wins given their bench… no matter how good their defense is.
What do you think? Is this starting lineup ranking way off? About right?
