No. 5: The Portland Trail Blazers’ NBA title aspirations —— COLD
Speaking personally, you’ve got to go all the way back to the 2014-15 season to find a time where there was this much optimism about a championship push. In some ways, this version of the Blazers, on paper at least, is superior to the Western Conference Finals team from two springs ago.
The hope in Oregon is that pairing the No. 3-ranked offense with defensive-minded, lunch pail players like Robert Covington and Derrick Jones Jr. is enough to allow the Blazers’ star backcourt to do its work without too many heroics.
Even given these moves, it’s difficult to place the Trail Blazers ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers — a team that provided Portland with a gentleman’s sweep and got better this summer. The calendar may as well say 2001. Portland got tons better. Tons deeper. Their superstar continues to create ways to get better.
But, just as history has always had it, those in purple-and-gold have remained in the way. That, or some other California team.
That being said, the Portland Trail Blazers have the look of a team that should be able to finish among the top-three out West. The Clippers could be due for some sort of regression, and have some culture shock issues to attend to with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George at the helm. Load management will be difficult for them with the new rules, but they will remain a force for Portland to deal with.
Glancing down the line, the Blazers will also be in contention with the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, and the up-and-coming Dallas Mavericks. And until they fix their problem of winning games against lowly competition, as Neil Olshey brought attention to, it’s mere aspiration.
That’s where one fan’s prediction lies: a third-place finish in the Western Conference for the Blazers, and an exit in either the second round or the third round.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Blazers as the last team standing. But at the moment, they appear to be a notch or two below.