The Portland Trail Blazers enter into a \u201917-\u201918 NBA season as yet another talented team in the western conference that is set to engage in a titanic slug fest to secure a playoff spot. The truth is that the Blazers are a good enough roster – on paper, at least – to call themselves a playoff team. The problem is that there are definitely more than eight teams out west that are in a similar situation. Here is the 2017-18 Portland Trail Blazers season preview.<\/p>\n
Although the Blazers finished last season with a mediocre 41-41 record after a disappointing start (before getting swept by the Golden State Warriors in the first round), they ended up playing fantastic basketball after the Jusuf Nurkic<\/a><\/strong> for Mason Plumlee<\/a><\/strong> trade. Portland managed to end the regular season with a 14-6 record with Nurkic playing. The Bosnian big man enabled Portland to finally awaken a three-headed, offensive juggernaut in the form of Nurkic and their star backcourt, Damian Lillard<\/a><\/strong>, and C.J. McCollum<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Nurkic was able to act as a much-needed paint and post presence, helping to draw defenders in and leave Lillard and McCollum with more space at the three-point line. Moreover, with Lillard especially, Nurkic was able to execute the pick-and-roll play to perfection. It helped that he was unusually athletic for a 7 foot, 280-pound giant, and his rolls to the hoop were surprisingly smooth.<\/p>\n Along with Nurkic, what also continued to work for the Blazers was the one-two punch of Lillard and McCollum. Portland’s star backcourt\u00a0averaged 50 points a night between Lillard and McCollum. Both possessed the scary ability to completely take over a game at any stage, albeit in different ways.<\/p>\n McCollum was a tremendously efficient scorer at every spot on the floor. He posting the leagues highest free throw clip (91%) to go with fantastic percentages from the floor (48% FG, 42% 3PT FG.) McCollum\u2019s efficiency was complemented by his old-school bag of dribbling tricks that had the power to make any defender look silly. After winning the MIP award two seasons ago, McCollum stepped up yet another notch last season to continue his progress into the elite echelons of players in the NBA.<\/p>\n Lillard, on the other hand, had lower shooting percentages but on nights that he caught fire, the opposition didn\u2019t have a chance of salvaging something from the game. Lillard’s 59 point burning of the Utah Jazz was his best performance of the year.<\/p>\n