Portland Trail Blazers
Entering the season, many believed the Portland Trail Blazers would be a team to contend with the Lakers for the top spot in the Western Conference and while they 5.5 games out of first-place in the Western Conference, this team has played really well given all of their injuries.
Not only has C.J. McCollum been out since January 16th with a broken foot, but big man Jusef Nurkic has been out for weeks with a broken wrist, Zach Collins is presumably out for the year with an ankle injury and Harry Giles has been dealing with a lingering calf issue. These injuries have left the Portland frontcourt deserted with just Robert Covington and Enes Kanter getting all the minutes.
Fortunately for the Trail Blazers, they have a guy named Damian Lillard who is pretty good at basketball and has been able to carry Portland over the last few weeks. They have now won 8 of their last 10 games, but the lack of depth in their frontcourt is definitely an issue moving forward.
Nurkic should be able to come back sometime in March and be an impact player for them once again, but he has not been able to stay healthy lately, as he suffered a major leg injury a year and a half ago, keeping him out for most of the 2019-20 season. With Nurkic’s injury history and the fact that Zach Collins is not coming back anytime soon, adding DeMarcus Cousins could give the Trail Blazers yet another weapon to utilize next to Lillard.
Enes Kanter has been a double-double machine for the Trail Blazers in Nurkic’s absence, but this team really needs to add more versatile scoring options, especially in their frontcourt. When Kanter has not been in the game, the Trail Blazers are one of the smallest teams in the league and teams have been able to attack them in the paint.
What makes the Trail Blazers so good is their ability to score and have plenty of scoring depth on their roster. Defense is non-existent with this team, which is another reason why adding DeMarcus Cousins makes sense. It is pretty clear that this team is not going to get better defensively, so they might as well go all-in on outsourcing their opponents!
The Trail Blazers are a championship contender this year and should be a pretty high seed in the Western Conference come playoff time, which is why they could end up being a preferred destination for DeMarcus Cousins.
