Portland Trail Blazers: A plan for a one-year tank and retool

2. The Portland Trail Blazers should rest their veterans and veer into the skid

Regardless of whether the Portland Trail Blazers can flip their veterans or if they’ll have to wait for free agency to lose their cap figures, Cronin and Head Coach Chauncey Billups should rest the more seasoned players for the rest of the season.

There’s still time for Portland to turn their record around at 13-22 and at least nab a play-in spot, but with the way COVID is decimating teams, it’s hard to envision a future where the Trail Blazers turn into serious contenders this season.

Instead, with a bottom-four record, Portland should try their best to remain at the top of the lottery odds. If they can slide down one more spot, they’ll end up tied for the best chance at landing the number one overall pick.

They can achieve this purposeful losing by resting Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and whatever seasoned players are on the roster.

This will give their stars and veteran role players time to rest and heal, allow management ample opportunity to find deals for those that need to be shipped out without having to worry about their everchanging trade values, and give Anfernee Simons, Nassir Little, and the other young Blazers run to establish what they are and will be in this league moving forward.

Hopefully, at the end of the season, the Trail Blazers will have a majority share of the lottery balls in the machine.