Friendly Fire

Memphis and Portland come into week 5 as strangers on the court, but not off of it.

Memphis’ GM Aaron is just getting his feet wet in the NLL, and has the restructured Blazers off to a 3-10 start.  However, a lot of that comes without their newly acquired star: Karl Anthony Towns. Aaron shocked the NLL with the splash move for the former Kentucky big man. While the fit still seems to be under construction, the pieces are there on paper for Memphis to make a playoff run this year.

On the other side of the scorers table sits GM TitlesOrBust … and it has been closer to the latter so far this year.

On his second full year in the NLL, Titles’ self-hype and tinkering nature has seemed to make the GM a well-known commodity around the league, even if for reasons off the court. Titles also came into the league with some large splashes and continued even as recently as this week, with the acquisition of franchise big man DeAndre Ayton.

On Paper this game looks fun… let us look at the matchups.

POINT GUARD

POR – Frank Ntilikina

MEM – Austin Rivers

The edge here goes to the veteran Rivers, who is presumably starting due to injuries effecting Marcus Smart and Shake Milton. Frank should be able to limit Rivers’ effectiveness with length and defensive effort, but I still expect AR to run the offense effectively AKA get the ball to Buddy Hield and KAT to score. Frank’s main job here per the coaching staff is holding on to the ball. If Ntilikina limits turnovers, he will have done his part in this matchup.

Advantage: Memphis

SHOOTING GUARD

POR – Coby White

MEM – Buddy Hield

SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOTS: EVERYBODY!

Both guys are top 20 in the NLL in Field Goal Attempts! Hield checks in at 20th overall, while Coby checks in at 2^nd overall in shots attempted. The difference? Efficiency. Hield is getting 58% of his shots to drop from behind the arc, while the second-year man out of UNC is sitting at 31% from deep. Coby may eventually get to Hield’s level, but it will not be this week. Keep an eye on Coby in this one however, as he has been moved to the starting two guard with the departure of RJ Barrett, rather than the point.

Advantage: Memphis

SMALL FORWARD

POR – Andrew Wiggins

MEM – Deni Avdija

Wiggins gets a bad rap because of his “contract” (which really is not that bad), but the guy can straight up play. As many flashy young players as the Blazers have went after, Wiggins has been their best player day in and day out for two seasons now. This matchup will be the first the Blazers get the nod in, as I am not sure Deni can do much to stop Wiggins offensively. Wiggins averages 22 a game as it stands, that is good for 15^th overall on the NLL scoring list this year. Deni’s length could help him out on the perimeter against Wiggins, but it is going to be a long day for the rookie in this one.

Advantage: Portland

POWER FORWARD

POR – Bobby Portis

MEM – Karl-Anthony Towns

Bobby Portis finds himself starting for the second week in a row after some lineup shuffling in Portland, and he just may be the key to the entire picture for the Blazers. His versatility is not showing up on the stat sheet right now, but Portis has been a great glue guy at the PF position after the failed Lauri Markkanen experiment that lasted no time.

What does Bobby Portis get rewarded with, you ask? A 40 piece being dropped on his head by KAT. In just three games this year, KAT is averaging 25 and 14, and has looked damn near dominant. Portland will have some bodies to throw at him, but it will not matter.

Advantage: Memphis

CENTER

POR – DeAndre Ayton

MEM – Nerlens Noel

This is going to be a battle down low all night long. Ayton is the new prize for Portland, bet he’s going to have his hands full with the front court of Noel and KAT. Noel, while not rated quite as high, is a monster on the boards and should limit DeAndre’s effectiveness a bit. Noel, averaging a respectable 9 points and adding 13 boards a game, is no slouch.

Ayton comes in posting great numbers, and will give Portland a look they haven’t seen before. Ayton is a top 25 scorer currently, posting 18 PPG. Couple that with being a top 4 rebounder, and DeAndre will cause fits for the Memphis front line all night if they don’t put a body on him.

Advantage: Portland, but it’s closer than ratings show.

BENCH:

POR – Hamidou Diallo, JaVale McGee, Derrick Jones Jr, Aleksej Pokusevski,  

MEM – Monte Morris, DeAnthony Melton, Dorian Finney-Smith, Grayson Allen

Portland lacks guard depth, and Memphis lacks big depth… which will be more important?

My initial reaction is that Memphis trots out the better unit here, led by streaky guards Monte Morris and Grayson Allen, but how effective will they be against Portland’s long, lanky defensive guards? If they can limit turnovers, it very well may be the key to the game.

Portland has lost a lot of scoring overall off their roster, with the likes of Naz Reid, Lauri Markkanen and RJ Barrett finding new homes recently. Will the departure of those buckets be extremely costly to this team that by all accounts looks like it’s bench unit will struggle to find the basket?

Memphis will rely on their bench scoring I believe to keep pace with Wiggins, White and Ayton. That’s a fine proposition, as long as Morris can “MAKE SOME DAMN SHOTS” as GM Aaron would put it.

Advantage: Memphis

Head-to-Head Prediction:

Memphis pulls away in the third, led by bench scoring and KAT. Grizzlies 105, Blazers 96.