Hassan Whiteside struggles off the bench in Blazers OT win over Grizz

UPDATE: Whiteside wasn’t very productive coming off the bench. The big man only played 16 minutes despite Nurkic and Collins struggling with foul trouble and fouling out. Whiteside tallied 7 points and 4 rebounds to finish with a total of 16 DKFP. He’ll likely get playing time sparingly moving forward if Collins and Nurkic continue to seem like the better pair down low.

The Portland Trail Blazers released their starting lineup for Friday’s opener vs. the Memphis Grizzlies and things are a bit different. Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins both returned from injury and both will be in the starting front court in place of Hassan Whiteside, who will come off the bench.

We’ll see what types of lineups Terry Stotz comes up with to include Whiteside. Even Collins starting at PF is a bit of a stretch because he’s more of a true PF. The size advantage the Blazers get with Nurk and Whiteside would be big, but of course that may limit Portland’s ability to run on the fast break. This lineup also gives the Blazers some more floor spacing, since Whiteside can’t really come outside the paint much.