The Most Frustrating Thing About the Blazers

The Portland Trail Blazers are doing better in the 2024-25 season that predicted, at least according to the preseason betting lines. That doesn’t make a 23-33 record more palatable, though. Every bright spot—like their recent 10 of 11 game winning streak—has been accompanied by more measured moments, like their 110-102 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers last night.

Today’s Blazer’s Edge Mailbag question addresses this issue from the point of view of one of our readers.

Dave,

I can’t figure this team out. They look great for a minute but they’ll always let you down. I was expecting more after January. They’ve had alot of time together and should be growing, But all we’re getting is losses. The opponents are tougher. Is that the only cause? If that’s true are they even really that good though? Because any good team can beat them now or so it seems.

Darryl

They’re still not that experienced. The roster still has flaws. They’re suffering from injuries and fielding different lineups night to night. Those realities form the basic answer to your question. But that’s a boring and way too short mailbag, so I’m going to share with you the one thing about the Blazers that drives me up a wall right now. It doesn’t outweigh the Big Three flaws, but it contributes.

We need to take a look at the Toumani Camara Factor. Camara isn’t a perfect player. We can get into his weaknesses some other day. But when he’s on the floor, he’s giving you a high level of energy, enthusiasm, and attention to detail.

This is slightly different than saying a player has a great motor. I’ve seen players go at it harder in isolated moments than Camara does, revving that engine into red RPM’s. That’s not him. Instead he’s out there defending every possession, making every switch, putting his feet where they’re supposed to go, keeping his hands up, getting ready to receive the next pass on offense, shooting with reasonably good form when he catches it. Sheer consistency of competence is, in itself, a skill. Camara is the poster child for it.

Camara stands on top of a spectrum for the Blazers in this way. But that spectrum has another end. I don’t want to tag specific players who occupy its bottom reaches. Like the team, most individuals have gone up and down this season. Name me a player and I can point out examples of energetic, technically-proficient outings from them. But few of Camara’s teammates are consistent in their execution. That hurts the team.

Just last night, I saw the following things:

• A player on a semi-break was wide open at the top of the three-point arc, with all day to shoot. Instead of setting his feet and gathering for a normal shot, he jumped and leaned on the fly, all in one motion. As soon as I saw him go up, my mind registered, “That’s probably going long because his momentum is carrying him forward.” Bonk goes the ball off of the bracket.
• The Lakers ran the ball back after a turnover. Two Blazers were in range of the dribbler. One undercut him in order to slow his progress towards the bucket. The second Blazers player was in trailing position. The loss of momentum left the Lakers player vulnerable to a catch-up block from behind. Instead of accelerating towards the defensive opportunity, that second Portland player dropped his hands, pulled up into a walk, and let the play go. L.A. scored easily.
• A Portland guard got halfway stuck on a pick. Not even fully caught, just half-hit by a simple screen, Instead of fighting past, the guard just stood there. A teammate had to rotate to cover the now-open Lakers threat, which left that teammate’s man free to duck to the bucket for an easy catch and dunk. (In fact, Portland’s interior defense was so milquetoast that it might as well have been an extra in a Hallmark Christmas Movie or the protagonist in a JRPG. It literally said nothing.)

Facing the Lakers, Portland has a LeBron James problem. It’s like the weather. You know it’s coming. There’s not a damn thing you can do about it. Put Camara on him, double-team him, doesn’t matter. He’s LeBron. It’s a given.

In order to overcome that, they need a bunch of little plays to go right, plays of the exact kind they gave up on above. They had to know this at the beginning of the game, but for large stretches, they didn’t play like it.

NBA games are decided by a relatively small margin. In many losses, even being 3-4 points closer would change the tenor of the fourth quarter. Missed shots and honest mistakes are one thing. That’s just basketball. But when you don’t pay attention to detail or when your mind causes you to give up on a play that your body could have gotten you into, that’s frustrating.

This isn’t the reason the Blazers are losing. It is one of the things they need to overcome if they ever want to start winning big. Good teams do it more often than poor ones do. There’s little doubt which the Blazers are playing like right now.

Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll answer as many as we can!