5. Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers are a team in desperate need of some additional offensive weapons.
Yes, their offense has been pretty good overall (8th in offensive rating), but nearly all of their offense comes from Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic. Those three players are the only Trail Blazers that are averaging double figures in scoring. There are only two other teams in the NBA that have three or fewer players averaging double figures in scoring: the Golden State Warriors and the Phoenix Suns. Unless the Trail Blazers all of a sudden acquired three of the best scorers in the NBA, or they plan on being as bad as the Suns, something needs to change.
In the regular season, the scoring load can be shouldered by McCollum and Lillard. It’s worked out fine in the past, and it will probably work out fine in the future. But remember when the Blazers were swept in the first round of the 2018 playoffs by the New Orleans Pelicans? There’s more where that came from if they don’t acquire another scorer or playmaker before the 2019 playoffs.
Parker needs to improve on defense before he can become a staple on a good team, but there’s no reason why he can’t be a spark plug off the bench to help ease the scoring load that McCollum and Lillard shoulder.