With new additions to the team, the Portland Trail Blazers will look to change their defensive strategy for the upcoming season, reports Jason Quick of the Athletic. Historically, the playbook of Head Coach Terry Stotts has focused on rim protection versus defending the perimeter, and in the Bubble, the team ranked 27th in defense out of 30 NBA teams.
Stotts called it “a difficult decision” to shift his defensive philosophy, but he felt he needed to adapt to the NBA’s evolving emphasis on the perimeter game and to his roster, which now features agile and mobile bigs in Jusuf Nurkic, Enes Kanter, Zach Collins and Harry Giles.