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Portland Trail Blazers players and coaches in annual NBA GM Survey

By Nate Mann

PORTLAND, OR - OCTOBER 17: City officials, the family of Jack Ramsay and Portland Trail Blazers dignitaries (General Manager Neil Olshey, Head Coach Terry Stotts, and former Player Bobby Gross) gather to celebrate the naming of North Ramsay Way on October 17, 2014 at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2014 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - OCTOBER 17: City officials, the family of Jack Ramsay and Portland Trail Blazers dignitaries (General Manager Neil Olshey, Head Coach Terry Stotts, and former Player Bobby Gross) gather to celebrate the naming of North Ramsay Way on October 17, 2014 at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2014 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Compared to the Rookie Survey, the Portland Trail Blazers made several appearances in the 2017-2018 NBA GM Survey.

Surprisingly, the Portland Trail Blazers frequent this year’s NBA GM Survey. They are continually overlooked by the rest of the league, but perhaps a slightly altered lineup made GM’s give the team a second look.

The survey has seven components: Predictions, Players, Offseason Moves, Rookies & International, Defense, Coaches and Miscellaneous.

Portland appears in Predictions, Players, Rookies & International and Coaches.

Predictions

GM’s were asked to rank the top four teams in each conference. In the West, of course, the Golden State Warriors received 97 percent of first-place votes.

Who is down at No. 6 for most votes overall? Portland! 4 percent of the voters believe the Blazers sneak into the four-seed in a tough Western Conference.

Interestingly, neither the Denver Nuggets nor the Los Angeles Clippers received any votes for the top four. League GM’s see Portland as having a leg up over their top competitors.

Players

Coming in at No. 4 for player most likely to breakout this season is none other than Jusuf Nurkić.

As we all know, his numbers jumped after the trade to Rip City. However, the question surfaced, will he be able to continue such production in a full season with the Blazers?

Seeing slim Nurk leave Marquese Chriss lost in the post (and also posterizing him), there’s a lot of hope coming from both fans and GM’s.

He received 10 percent of the votes. Karl-Anthony Towns ranked first with 21 percent, and Kristaps Porzingis and Myles Turner tied for second with 14 percent.

(Turner finished once again just ahead of Nurk.)

Rookies & International

Finally, Caleb Swanigan is recognized. The rookies did him no justice in the “Steal of the Draft” category, but the GM’s did.

They voted him tied for No. 3 with Donovan Mitchell for biggest steal. They each received 7 percent of the votes.

Dennis Smith Jr. and Kyle Kuzma came in ahead of Swanigan at 37 and 22 percent, respectively.

Coaches

While Terry Stotts didn’t make the list anywhere, his assistant David Vanterpool tied for third as the best assistant coach in the NBA.

Next: Blazers barely lose first preseason game to Suns

He is joined in the top four by Ron Adams of Golden State (21 percent), Ettore Messina of San Antonio (14 percent) and Mike Brown (10 percent), also from Golden State.

Coaches under Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich are not bad company for Vanterpool.