The Portland Trail Blazers will enter the 2022 season with a team that is basically the same as it was in the 2021 season. Without a first-round pick or significant cap space, the Blazers will start next season reliant on new head coach Chauncey Billups, and internal improvement from young players, to improve their squad.
Much has been said about trades, but they haven’t happened, so it’s time to embrace the core that this team has. Looking forward to the pre-season and training camp, the players will look for young guys to step up and grab some minutes.
Here are three Portland Trail Blazers players to take a chance on for pre-season
Greg Brown – rookie forward
Neil Olshey might not have made big trades to improve the team, but it seems like he has hit on another late second-round pick in the exciting Greg Brown out of Texas.
This Blazers team lacks an athletic presence on both ends, and with Brown the only true power forward on the roster, maybe he becomes a small part of the rotation in 2022.
Robert Covington is an elite three and d player, but he doesn’t have the athletic presence, strength, or post-game to give the type of inside scoring that would help this team. In an ideal world, Covington would be at the three and the Blazers would have a true four instead.
Brown, with his crazy athleticism, and developing shooting, could stake a claim for minutes right away. And even if he doesn’t, with this team’s salary bill about to skyrocket, it’s likely that a strong pre-season will put him in the picture for minutes in the future.
At six-foot-nine with a seven-foot-wingspan Brown could be the future power forward for this team.