Tweaking the Blazers

Sitting down after the Blazers were eliminated in the playoffs I thought about what I would do if I were KP & or Nate.

Here's my list of things I would do - just to tweak things a bit for next season.

1. Call Jerry Sloan and ask to spend time with him going over his offensive and defensive playbook. Find out how Jerry is able to design a play, put any 5 guys on the floor and get them to run it correctly. Call a few other top offensive and defensive minded Coaches & pick their brains. Come to camp with some new plays & make sure you figure out the plan on defending the pick and roll. Make sure certain players know what that plan is.
2. Call the leading big man coach and hire him to spend time with Lamarcus Aldridge & Greg Oden. Both players need to expand their games going towards the hoop if the team wants to have success come playoff time.
3. Find time for Dante Cunningham in the rotation off the bench. Cunningham is the kind of player who can change the pace of the game with his play. He shoots a high % and he goes to the glass hard. The best time to use Dante IMO would be when Lamarcus comes out flat and is only playing one side of the court. Give the young guy 18minutes a game next season - it will pay dividends come playoff time.
4. Increase Nicolas Batum's minutes to 35+ per game. It's time for Batum to get more than 24 minutes a game and more plays run through him too (9+ shots a game) It's better for the team if Batum is shooting from 18 feet out than Lamarcus shooting a 15 foot fade away.
(if Batum misses you have a better chance at grabbing the rebound) He shoots such a high % we just have to get him more involved.
5. Ask KP to look into signing Kyle Korver to shore up outside shooting and Luke Ridnour as a backup to Andre Miller.

Well, that's my list. What would you do?

The way I see it the Blazers don't need to make a major trade. Getting everyone healthy along with a few tweaks and a FA signing here or there should be enough come playoff time to finally get out of round one.

GO BLAZERS!