The Oregonian/OregonLive is taking a player-by-player look at the Portland Trail Blazers roster heading into the offseason.
Other posts: Trendon Watford; Greg Brown III; Keon Johnson; CJ Elleby; Brandon Williams; Ben McLemore; Drew Eubanks; Elijah Hughes; Keljin Blevins; DiDi Louzada; Joe Ingles; Eric Bledsoe; Reggie Perry; Kris Dunn.
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Today: Justise Winslow, 26, 6-foot-6, forward.
Contract status: Winslow has one year remaining on his contract at $4.1 million.
Likelihood to return: For sure, unless he is traded.
2021-22 contributions: Winslow arrived in Portland as an uncelebrated part of the trade that sent Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the LA Clippers. But Winslow immediately made his presence felt as a hard-nosed, physical forward committed to playing the way coach Chauncey Billups expects the game to be played. That led to Winslow producing 10.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. He played 26.8 minutes per contest while appearing in 11 games (with 10 starts) before a calf injury ended his season in late March.
Strengths/weaknesses: Winslow brought physicality and toughness to the court. He finished with a 116 defensive rating with the Blazers but had a 100 rating with the much more defensive-minded Clippers.
The 10th pick of the 2015 draft, Winslow entered the league as a do-it-all player. But injuries slowed his progress. His best season came with Miami (the team that drafted him) in 2018-19, when Winslow averaged 12.6 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.3 assists. He shot 43.3% from the field and 37.5% on threes.
That is the Winslow the Blazers hope to see next season. For that to happen, Winslow must improve as a shooter. With the Blazers, he shot just 40.5% from the field and 27% on threes.
He finished reasonably well around the basket, making 61.7% of his attempts from inside of five feet. But he made just 8 of 31 attempts (25.8%) from 10 to 19 feet. His overall jump shot success rate was just 29.5%.
But even if Winslow never becomes a reliable marksman, he can have an impact on offense with his passing. Billups talked glowingly about Winslow’s ability to make smart basketball plays as a facilitator within the offense. He averaged 2.9 assists with the Blazers.
2022-23 outlook: Securing Winslow in the trade with the Clippers gave the team a rotational player to replace Covington without having to go out into the free-agent market this offseason to land a veteran backup power forward.
Atop the agenda now is securing a true starting power forward and then hoping that Winslow’s lengthy injury issues are behind him.
The one year remaining on Winslow’s contact could also make him a valuable trade chip should that contract be needed to balance out salaries coming back to Portland in a deal.
But that likely only would happen if the Blazers are in a position to reel in a major star.
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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