In fact, this season is relatively sad for the Trail Blazers, and the competition in the West is too fierce. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In addition to them, the Thunder, the maturing Thunder, the Clippers after Paul's arrival, the Lakers led by the disobedient Kobe, the Spurs of GDP and Popovich, and the Grizzlies who renewed the contract of Gasol Jr...... These are all tough opponents, especially the Spurs, Lakers and Thunder, who are definitely in the way of the Trail Blazers' title defense.

It also means that each team will need to make reinforcements before the trade deadline to further improve their strength. Forget about other teams, as long as it is a team that thinks it has a chance to compete for the championship, it will definitely set off a bloody storm in the trade market. A lot of people think that the Trail Blazers won the championship just by luck, and the Western team has almost all eyes on the Heat, thinking that as long as they pile up more stars to get the Heat.

Even so, their reinforcement operation greatly threatens the situation of the Trail Blazers, which forces the team to further improve the roster. Paul Allen is an ambitious owner, and he didn't think much of it at first, but after the Trail Blazers won the championship last season, he was desperate for the next championship, and even paid the luxury tax for the team, and he was also in favor of the management's recruitment, after all, a championship has proven their vision.

Fortunately, the Trail Blazers' record has always remained at a very high level, closely following the Spurs in second place in the West, and even surpassing the old enemy Lakers. Speaking of the Spurs this season, they are indeed a bit abnormal, Popovich's team has always been habitually playing dead in the first half of the regular season, waiting until after the All-Star Weekend to start working, but this season has been aggressive from the beginning, and no one knows what the old man thinks.

But the Trail Blazers' second place wasn't easy, with the Lakers and Thunder close on their toes with less than 1.5 wins, a huge margin for a long regular season, even if the regular season has been cut to 66 games. As long as the team in front is not careful, there is a wave of consecutive defeats, and it doesn't even take a long time, and the ranking will slide down like a slide in an instant, and it is normal to fall to the bottom half.

This season, the Spurs got a rookie they were very optimistic about after the draft, to be precise, General Manager Buford was very fond of a rookie, and he persuaded Popovich to trade George Hill, a blue-eyed young point guard, from the Pacers to Kawhi Leonard of San Diego State University. Leonard is a small forward who is strong in defense and weak in offense, and his addition has made GDP spend a lot less energy on the defensive end, and Popovich has to admire the eyes of his old buddy.

This guy looks like a good match for the Spurs' style, he never has any expression on his face, even if he has a poker face after a fast-break dunk, but his strength is really strong, although he seems to be inexperienced, but he has shown the potential to become the league's top outside defender.

The Trail Blazers lost the first meeting with the Spurs this season, and the reason was this young small forward, and the victim was naturally Ye Feng, the MVP of the new Finals. Ye Feng only found out after the start of the game how difficult this small forward who was put on the starting line by Popovich, Leonard is not very experienced, but he has an indomitable energy, and his physical fitness is very good, and his defensive movements are quite clean, his performance on the defensive end caught Ye Feng a little off guard.

Although Ye Feng scored a double-double of 27 points and 11 assists in the whole game, he used 23 shots to get these 27 points, and the shooting rate can be imagined, which fully reflects Leonard's power on the defensive end. If Aldridge hadn't had 32 points and nine rebounds, the Trail Blazers might have lost even more ugly. Since that game, Leonard has been named to the head coach of the remaining 29 teams in the league, and not every rookie can defend against the Finals MVP.

The only consolation for McMillan is that Roy and Oden, who have returned from injury, have performed well, and he has given Roy nearly 20 minutes of playing time per game, and Roy can average 12.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game, shooting nearly 50% from the field. Oden had less time and McMillan felt he needed more protection, resulting in Oden averaging just 15.1 minutes per game, but he still contributed 6.7 points and 7.2 rebounds.

But then again, the Trail Blazers' interior line is still a bit weaker, and there are basically no players who can be called famous except for Aldridge and Camby. The management has been hoping to strengthen the inside line, but unfortunately they have not been able to find the right target.

But after All-Star Weekend, Trail Blazers management unexpectedly saw a suitable candidate in the free agent market, and that was JJ Hickson, a power forward who had just been cut by the Kings. Hickson is also a strange thing, when the league was shut down, he went to Europe to play, playing for Israel's Bneha Chalon, but he was cut after only one game, for a funny reason, he was late for training for two days in a row, and the team swept him away. And in the only game he played, the team lost by 39 points, even though he had 20 points and eight rebounds, which was really embarrassing.

Hickson was cut by the Kings on March 20 and is currently out of work, but he is the best option Trail Blazers management can find in the free agent market. Although Hickson only averaged 4.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game for the Kings before, he started 66 games when he was with the Cavaliers last season, averaging 28.2 minutes per game in the regular season, contributing 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds while shooting 45.8% from the field.

In contrast, Babbitt is more like a small forward, and Kurt Thomas, who was signed with a one-year veteran base salary, is too old, considering that he is 39 years old this year, and he should have retired long ago when he was replaced by a backcourt player. At the time, McMillan didn't expect him to share the team's worries in the No. 4 position, and only let him play once in a while to pass the garbage time. Now when you encounter a strong power forward like Hickson, it is natural to start.

Originally, Hickson had reached an agreement with the Warriors to sign with the Warriors once the severance period ended, but the Trail Blazers decisively took over Hickson's remaining contract and promised to renew him in the summer, which brought a big protector by James' side back then.