Finn Delany wowed observers
You could see the sweat glisten on his baby mustache, droplets sizzling and drizzling down his arms. Yes, Finn Delany busted his ass in the rebounding drill and really, all throughout camp. So much so, that he won the Best Camper award - a small tent trophy and the vets picking up his check at the post-camp dinner rather than the usual rookie hazing of the other way round.
"He stayed after hours, working with me on how to get into position for boards," new Blazers assistant Joakim Noah revealed. "How to angle himself for a better shot. And when he went home, he relaxed by studying the playbook and the film - especially paying attention to how Nicola Mirotic operated in the playoffs last year. He made the biggest jump in basketball awareness I've seen in person in a long, long time."
While those were his biggest leaps forward, Delany also made some key strides in his passing and in all three facets of the defensive side of the ball, in addition to some other, smaller improvements in other areas. As one observer noted, "This wasn't the one-trick pony bump in one spot or two - The Kiwi kid went HAM every drill, every session and outworked literally everyone else on this team."
It was enough of an all-around jump that the (mostly) newly-minted coaching staff discussed working the rotation to give Portland's lone rookie some backup minutes at SF - possibly even PF to get developmental playing time.
"I could see something like 10-12 minutes split between the two forward spots, then possibly a bigger role if the team looks like they're out of it," said the observer very early on in the camp.
Hamidou "The Younger" Diallo also stood out in camp
If we're being truthful, no one knew exactly what they were going to get with Hamidou Diallo. Diallo the Younger, as he's called, needs a lot of work on his shooting form and it wasn't certain just how he would respond to a new team, a new staff, and a new system.
Happily for the Blazers, he showed improvement in multiple facets - especially in terms of building on his already exceptional handling and boosting his ability to get steals. Critical to his future development - strides in his shooting. While not stunning increases, the better shooting touch was nonetheless on display. He also showcased the typical third-year physical endurance great jump forward and has generated an interesting conundrum for the coaching staff.
As the observer reported, "This is the perfect example of how steady, incremental growth can get you ahead of the curve. Now the staff is asking themselves if they want to just go ahead and put him in the starting lineup, work on his form, and have Austin Rivers come off the bench as a 6th man combo guard. It's definitely an option that's possible now - The Younger is now significantly ahead of Rivers in handling, defense, steals, IQ... and he might have stepped up his shooting enough that they go okay, we'll roll with because we have Mirotic there to provide the outside shooting anyway."
The Old, Odd Man Out
On the disappointing side, Clint Capela looked so decayed from the previous year that he's now likely to be the third-string center. "I was shocked at how bad he looked," said the observer. "I think you're going to see them go with a smallball bench frontcourt where the Kiwi plays PF next to Diallo the Elder's CE for 16 minutes. Cheick Diallo can play that role - it's something he did under this GM when Jestor drafted him in the 2nd round with the Lakers some years back. Then Kawhi Leonard can take the backup SF minutes.
Which leaves a lineup of:
PG Aaron Holiday
SG Hamidou Diallo or Austin Rivers
SF Nikola Mirotic
PF Aleksander Venzenkov (due to better rebounding than Mirotic)
CE Laurynas Birutis
Second string: Rivers/H. Diallo or Rivers/Kawhi/Delany/C. Diallo
Some Internet wags suggested that the Blazers could put both Diallos on the court at the same time because "Two Diallos are better than one".
Overall Outlook
It's difficult to project exactly where Portland falls in the Western hierarchy next season. The bench is deeper and better (only Jordan Clarkson and the still raw Grant Williams last season even belonged on a CSL roster) and Birutis is worlds better than the walking corpses of Walter Tavares and Demarcus Cousins. Even Diallo the Elder starting at center would be better than those two.
But no Marcus Smart. No Joe Ingles - the superstar and the elite defender, respectively. No Jalen Brunson - the good two-way guard, either.
Instead, what you have is a star center, an actual bench worthy of the term, and a much wider spread of solid team defenders (excusing the PF position - neither Venzenkov nor Delany are even average, but they'll have coverage around them).
Looking around the Northwest, Utah is still the team to beat in the Northwest. Denver, under One Nole's brilliant temporary GMing, snapped up Brunson and filled out the roster around Jayson Tatum to still be solid. Minnesota is up-and-coming but probably not quite there yet, and Oklahoma City is in the early stages of their rebuild.
What seems most likely is a repeat of last season - Utah takes the division easily and Portland and Denver fight it out for second place in a narrow, tight contest where the winner takes a late playoff seed and the loser heads off to the lottery.
"If I were a betting man," said the observer, "I'd say Denver takes the playoff spot. Mirotic will draw offers at the deadline, if not sooner, that tempt if not convince Portland to make the move and shift down the pecking order. They've got their picks, they're sitting on a buttload of cap space next summer... for a roster that was aging out with a window that was down to a year or two, they really quickly put themselves in position to be back sooner rather than later."
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