The Portland Trail Blazers are stocked with lithe, fairly quick, defensively-apt forwards. Toumani Camara and Jerami Grant lead the list. Both are 6’7, known for range on defense and finesse on offense, theoretically apt at shooting the three…pretty much the modern archetypes of the position.
Despite that, one Blazer’s Edge Reader poses a question in the Mailbag this morning that might be worth considering. Check it out:
Dave,
Isn’t it obvious at this point that Portland has a rebounding problem? We
don’t have anybody above 6-8 except Cling [Donovan Clingan] and the centers. If they’re not by the basket we get destroyed rebounding. If they’re not in the game it’s worse. Why not get a more traditional kind of power forward to help and on defense as well with bigger opponents?
Tyler
I’m going to open this up to our readership, but first I’ll add a couple thoughts.
First, one of the weaknesses of Donovan Clingan is being able to cover space, especially on defense. If I think of a bruising, Buck Williams type of power forward, I envision similar mobility issues on “D” plus gumming up Clingan’s space inside the lane on offense. Granted, true Buck Williams forwards don’t exist anymore. Whomever came on board would have more range than Buck did. But I don’t think you can just slot in a 6’9 or 6’10 bruiser and call it good. If you can’t reach the arc (and shoot from it) in today’s game, you’re going to get out-stat-ed. (And yes, I know Buck wasn’t 6’9. Just sayin’.)
Second, Camara and Grant are super talented. I don’t think the Blazers can go out on the open market, grab a generic big body, and get the same results. And that’s even admitting that the current results are sub-optimal. Toumani does so much in the defensive schemes. Grant isn’t shabby. You can’t replace them with a less-than-elite defender without impacting the system.
Third, at least in theory, Camara and Grant are three-point shooters. That’s not coming across right now—Grant is shooting 38.5% from the arc this season, Camara 34.9%—but it could be worse. If it does get worse, Portland is going to suffer.
This line of thinking leads us here: the Blazers need a 6’10, big-bodied rebounder who also has range from the rim to the arc on defense, is a good-to-elite defender, and can shoot the three.
Well yeah. Who doesn’t?!?
Failing that, choices have to be made. That leaves us with your original question. Let’s pretend that Portland can’t get to the upper reaches of the lottery or cook up a magnificent trade that would yield the all-around, star forward we just described. Would you prefer them to get a bigger, more traditional power forward, either cutting into the minutes of the current forwards or moving them to small forward instead? Would better rebounding be worth the other sacrifices?
Chew on that question with Tyler and leave your thoughts in the comment section below! If you’d like to send in your own question, you can email it to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to get to as many as possible!
