Deciding The Trail Blazers' Healthy Playing Rotation Is Terry Stotts' Toughest Test
There's still a chance C.J. McCollum plays on Thursday in the Trail Blazers' second-half debut. Jusuf Nurkic made clear on The Jump yesterday that his return is at most two weeks away.
Portland, thankfully, will finally be getting healthy as the stretch run of the regular season dawns. But just because his team's second and third-best players are returning to the floor after two months spent on the sidelines hardly means Terry Stotts' job is getting any easier.
As the Blazers finally get back to near full-strength, Stotts will face his toughest test of the season: how to suss out a consistent, successful rotation from a roster that goes at least 12 deep with viable NBA players.
After Portland's win over the Sacramento Kings before the All-Star break, Stotts elected against even hinting at a prospective rotation with McCollum and Nurkic back in the fold.
"Well, that's why I said that we got something to figure out when they come back. I'm not gonna say one way or the other," he told reporters. "We've had guys come in and play well, but certainly Nurk and C.J. are gonna eventually have their regular minutes, and they gotta come from somewhere.
"I'm not gonna lock into any specific rotation, or minutes, or number of people or anything like that. It's gonna be an adjustment, and it's gonna take a little bit of time to figure things out."
The Blazers' starting five of Damian Lillard, McCollum, Derrick Jones Jr., Robert Covington and Nurkic is set in stone for now. At least until the playoffs when defenses further dare Jones to beat them, Gary Trent Jr. is earmarked as Portland's sixth man. Defensive foibles of Enes Kanter and Carmelo Anthony make their roles susceptible to series-specific scheming, too, but they've nevertheless earned spots in Stotts' rotation.
That's eight players, and Stotts' longtime preference has been a nine-man rotation. Fortunately for the odd man out among Anfernee Simons, Nassir Little, Rodney Hood and Harry Giles III, though, realities of the Blazers' condensed second-half schedule means Stotts is likely to go 10-deep through the regular season.
"You know, trying to squeeze a tenth guy in probably in the first half. We got 10 back-to-backs. There's gonna be multiple five games in seven nights," he said. "So I think load management may come into it; I will take load into account in decisions along the way."
Go ahead and cross Giles' name off the list for the ninth or even tenth rotation spot. Portland is already two-deep at center, and no doubt wants to continue sprinkling in small-ball lineups with Covington at the 5.
The Blazers' final rotation spot(s) will come down to Simons, Little and Hood. Expect each to get ample playing time over the first couple weeks of the second half as McCollum and Nurkic round into form. But the final decision belongs to Stotts, and it could make a major difference for the type of lower-rung contender whose success often hinges on the margins.