Depth Is Portland Trail Blazers' Biggest Issue

The contenders are beginning to separate themselves from the pretenders six weeks into this thrilling NBA season, and the Portland Trail Blazers have looked great (15-4) so far. They do have a weakness, though, despite Neil Olshey‘s best efforts, and it is overall team depth.

Can you name Damian Lillard‘s backup at point guard? I bet not. It is Steve Blake if you were wondering, and he is a better player than most remember, although teams get held to a different standard when they are attempting to win a championship. That is where Portland is at right now.

LaMarcus Aldridge is having an MVP-caliber campaign, however, it will not be enough if the Blazers do not have a bench capable of dealing with teams like the San Antonio Spurs. Another issue is that Portland has not won many games by a huge margin this year, and their center Robin Lopez mentioned it after winning against the Indiana Pacers.

“Not too many games have come pretty for us yet,” said Lopez to NBA.com. “Eventually that’s going to even out but it’s going to prepare us for when things aren’t going so well.”

I’m not sure it will ever even out completely for the Blazers due to their lack of bench, and unfortunately they pretty much have to battle with this roster. Any trades would likely be sideways moves that set back their team chemistry, and this will remain an issue until they are inevitably bounced in one round from the Western Conference playoffs.

Dave Daniels is a Prep Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter: @AllDave_AllDay, like him on Facebook here or add him to your network on Google.