Terry Stotts Refuses To Look Ahead As Portland's Struggles Continue

The Blazers' goals can only be accomplished in the playoffs, but their coach is only focused on day-to-day of the regular season.

The Trail Blazers are stuck.

They played perhaps their highest card at the trade deadline, bringing in one of the league's most sought-after targets in Norman Powell. Portland, finally, is about as healthy as it will get this season, with C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic back in the lineup after missing a big chunk of the schedule.

None of that's mattered. The Blazers are 5-4 since Powell debuted and Nurkic returned on March 26, with a +3.8 net rating, per NBA.com/stats – the league's 11th-best mark over that timeframe. But as Rip City knows all too well, the eye test and narrative paints a much more distressing portrait of Portland's recent play.

The Blazers haven't beat a winning opponent since mid-March, and their four losses with Powell in tow – all to playoff teams – have come by a combined 63 points. Portland's schedule isn't letting up, either, as 11 of its 12 next games come against foes above .500.

Clearly, something needs to change for the Blazers if they want to achieve their goals. Asked what he can do to help his team improve come the playoffs, though, Terry Stotts refused to answer. He's focused on day-to-day of the regular season instead of his team's ever-fading chances in the postseason.

"We got 19 games or whatever from the postseason. My concern is Boston," Stotts said after Sunday's game. "So you can go ahead and look forward to the playoffs and what we need to do to compete in the playoffs, but right now it's about getting there. It's about playing well, it's about beating Boston. We got a lot of games before the playoffs. I'm not looking ahead to that."

The problem for Stotts? No button he pushes could find Portland a two-way wing stopper ahead of Tuesday's game against Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. No rotation change he makes could better balance the Blazers' roster to include low-usage ball-movers, shooters and penetrators. He can't even count on Nurkic, the Blazers' best chance at managing semi-passable defense, to be available every night.

It's becoming more and more obvious that Portland is what its performance indicates – a lower-to-middle rung playoff team poised to get summarily bounced from the first round. Affording Nassir Little a consistent rotation role won't change that. Trying to implement a more aggressive defensive scheme and more egalitarian offensive approach on the fly won't, either. Even a more drastic move like cutting Carmelo Anthony's minutes entirely won't make the Blazers a contender.

Stotts bears blame here. Deflecting from Portland's seemingly inevitable postseason fate won't do his team any favors. The status quo is clearly not enough; acknowledging as much could at least provide the Blazers some hollow hope. 

But the other acknowledgment now seems just as obvious. Barring some remarkable turnaround, major changes are coming for Portland in the offseason – and maybe on the sidelines first.

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