Rip City Project
Fansided

Charles Barkley says the Portland Trail Blazers will make the NBA Finals

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 12: Basketball players Kenny Smith (L) and Charles Barkley speak onstage at Fall Out Boy takes the stage at American Express All-Star Live at Hammerstein Ballroom broadcast live on TNT to tip-off NBA All-Star 2015 on February 12, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for American Express)
NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 12: Basketball players Kenny Smith (L) and Charles Barkley speak onstage at Fall Out Boy takes the stage at American Express All-Star Live at Hammerstein Ballroom broadcast live on TNT to tip-off NBA All-Star 2015 on February 12, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for American Express)

Charles Barkley is at it again. This time, the NBA great has predicted that the Portland Trail Blazers will make the NBA finals.

Charles Barkley has always been outspoken, but the last little while, he has had the Portland Trail Blazers backs. This time, Barkley has predicted that they will make the NBA Finals.

A few months ago, Barkley also predicted that the Blazers would beat the Los Angeles Lakers if they made the NBA Playoffs. After some excellent performances by Damian Lillard and co, Barkley is sipping the same Kool-Aid that some Portland fans are.

It isn’t farfetched to think that the Blazers could knock some Western Conference teams off, but the most difficult one lies at the start of the playoff journey. The Lakers.

The combo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis has the size and speed to terrorize this Blazers team. There is no one on this Blazers team who can match up with either of these guys defensively. Both LeBron and Davis’ combination of size and speed is deadly for Dame the Blazers forwards and bigs.

The Blazers’ only hope of beating the Lakers is for the Dame, CJ McCollum and Gary Trent Jr. to explode from long distance. If they can do that, and hope that Zach Collins and Jusuf Nurkic can check LeBron and Davis, then maybe they can make this series competitive.

Nurkic’s weight loss, and the apparent extra lift has been a big surprise in the NBA return. There are reports that he lost over 30 pounds, and his rim protection and offensive game have without a doubt benefitted from his new svelte frame. The Lakers aren’t the best three-point shooting team. This helps the Blazers, who are the second-worst team in the league when it comes to defending the perimeter.

Unfortunately, the Blazers are also the second-worst team in the league when it comes to transition defense. These stats are based on the whole regular season before the return of Nurkic and Collins and the emergence of Trent, so maybe the new personnel can improve this.

This Blazers team has a good chance against any of the Western teams, but the Lakers in the first round present the stiffest test. With Dame at his peak and the Lakers having a rough start in the NBA Bubble though, this may be the best chance to topple them.

Thanks for the motivation Chuck.