The Portland Trail Blazers are slowly gaining ground in the race to make the Play-In Tournament. Following their thrilling 105-102 victory over the Toronto Raptors -- capped off by Matisse Thybulle's game-saving block in his first game back in almost a year -- Portland sits at 29-39.
They are 3.5 games back from the ten-seeded Dallas Mavericks; while it's not out of the equation, Rip City's margin of error is extremely thin, considering they also need to leapfrog the 31-37 Phoenix Suns.
The two things Portland has working in their favor are Dallas' plethora of injuries and the fact that Phoenix has the hardest remaining strength of schedule. Still, they are running out of time to catch up with just 14 games remaining.
The Blazers are so far into the season that tanking won't significantly alter their lottery odds (especially after defeating the Raptors). At this point, they should try to make the Play-In spot, as it would be great for their young core to gain valuable playoff-like experience by playing in more high-stakes games. However, the point worth emphasizing is that it would be great for their young core.
Blazers should shut down their veterans and let their young talent play
If Portland relies on veterans like Jerami Grant, Deandre Ayton, and Thybulle to win them games, it will essentially defeat the purpose of going for a Play-In spot and gaining this experience. By not making a trade at the deadline, the Blazers have put themselves in this strange two-timeline approach as a team with veterans and young players. It's okay to have some veterans on the roster, but only if they aren't getting in the way of roles and minutes for their young core.
Players like Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, etc., are likelier to be on the iteration of Portland's roster that finally makes a deep playoff run rather than Grant, Ayton, or Thybulle. The Blazers need to prioritize these players getting more experience to be better prepared when they are ready to take that next step and play meaningful basketball.
Blazers GM Joe Cronin's emphasis this season was on player development, and by letting their young talent play more, they'd achieve that goal. But, perhaps most importantly, they need to shut down the veterans to gain more roster clarity, which was Cronin's other expectation entering the season.
The Blazers have a large enough sample size with their veterans and already know what they are capable of. They need to know what they have moving forward with their young core to make more accurate decisions about the direction of their rebuild this offseason.