Game 41: Portland vs Cleveland 7:00pm Root+, NBAtv

[BlazersBroncos]

Tobias Harris at SG is that bad man. He would be absolutely abused on defense.

[BNM]

Maybe Nurkic, Hart, Nas and a first gets you Tobias Harris. Sign Whiteside, Melo and Cousins. Trade Simons for Randle.

Dame/Payton
Harris/Sharpe/Williams
Grant/Winslow
Randle/Melo
Whiteside/Cousins

Say what you want but the team is wayyy better than what we currently have and by far the best team Dame has ever had. **** it, it certainly can’t be worse than what we have now.

Wow, that's horrible!

Randle/Melo
Whiteside/Cousins

May be the worst front court rotation in the entire history of the NBA. Don't you remember anything about the Blazers most recent playoff series - against DEN??? Dame set an all time playoff record for on/off. Our starters outplayed DEN's starters and consistently built double digit leads only to see them instantly vanish as soon as Stotts brough Kanter/Freedom and Melo off the bench. DEN targeted both of those guys on defense - and it worked as expected. Your rotation is worse off the bench and you just replaced Nurk/RoCo with Whiteside/Randle in the starting lineup. All four of those guys are EXACTLY the player that get targeted and played off the floor in the playoffs.

That starting lineup is also hideous on defense. Harris and Grant are both playing out of position. Harris can't guard small forwards, let alone shooting guards an Grant's best position is stretch 4. You have four VERY negative defenders and your only positive defender is playing out of position.

It’s not that bad.

Yeah, it really and truly is. How is that lineup not worse than the one that was ABUSED by DEN in the playoffs two years ago?

3 of your 4 front court players are out of the league. There is a VERY good reason why NO team wants Whiteside, Cousins and Melo.

Harris at SG is a joke. He can't even play SF, but he's your answer at SG? Really???

That is a bad, bad, VERY bad line up. Those starters would get blown off the floor by most teams' 2nd units. There isn't a playoff team in the West that doesn't have a significantly better starting line up than that mess.

[Case2012]

Naw, 3 guys 6’8 that can play multiple positions ain’t a bad thing. Melo is a bucket and Whiteside shot 70% from the field with 13 boards and 3.5 blocks when he played for us, I think he’d be just fine. Harris could play the 3, Grant could play the 2, he’s nimble enough. All those guys are buckets, Randle and Harris are good playmakers and would make up for Grants atrocious rebounding too. Randle had 42 and 12 this morning stop hating on him, he’s better than LMA was in his prime. That team would be way better than we currently have. Cousins can’t play defense but he’s a great team player, high IQ, can shoot 3’s and rebound. He was the best center in the league before his injuries.

I can absolutely live without all those guys but you’re all ignoring what my point was, and that’s that we need size and vets that can contribute. Yeah, that would be funky line up, duh but it’s a million times better than our current bench.