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Lowe: Blazers Wanted Whiteside, Aminu Will Start At Power Forward

ESPN's Zach Lowe, one of the best journalists covering the NBA, if not the best, posted a story today laying out almost the entirety of the Trail Blazers' offseason moves. Lowe seems somewhat optimistic about the deals Portland made this summer (though he notes they also have the potential to be "disastrous"), while stating the cold fact that a franchise which has shown no ability to draw big name free agents doesn't have a whole lot of options when trying to build a winner. It's easily the best retelling of the plan Neil Olshey executed this summer that you're going to find, so I recommend reading it from start to finish.

But let's pull look at some of the more interesting tidbits, of which there are many. First, the true target...

They chose the latter. Lowe points out that in order to keep any real cap space for next season, the Blazers would have had to part ways with many of the players from last year's team and delayed CJ McCollum's extension. And even then, it wouldn't be enough space to sign a max player, assuming one could be lured to Portland anyway, which has never been the case.

On the much-discussed topic of who plays what position, Lowe reports that Al-Farouq Aminu will start at power forward, a move that both Olshey and Terry Stotts have signaled this offseason, though he takes it one step further...

It's one thing to use Aminu at power forward for spurts, something the Trail Blazers did often last year, particularly late in the season, but another for him to play there "almost exclusively." According SportVU player tracking, as provided by Nylon Calculus, Aminu played 56 percent of his minutes at small forward last season while playing power forward 44 percent of the time. Granted, these numbers are imperfect, and positions in the NBA have never been more fluid, but going from roughly splitting time between small and power forward to playing almost entirely at the four is a fairly drastic change.

Then there's the topic of Dwight Howard, who the Trail Blazers were rumored to be pursuing during the July moratorium. According to Lowe, those rumors might have been a bit overblown...

This is just a guess, but this might be what Olshey was referring to when he mentioned "unfounded" speculation and that "a lot of names on lists that were never viable that we never had any interest in" during the press conference to introduce Festus Ezeli. Of course, there's no lack of speculation during free agency, so it could very well be in reference to someone else.

There's a whole lot more in there, particularly if you're interested in how Stotts might utilize Evan Turner, which is very much worth your time.