Just like it had happened during the previous year, Portland ended last season in a full time tank job in order to try to get the best possible odds for the draft lottery. They finished last season in the bottom 5 of the league on the defensive end for the fourth season in a row, so their offense always needed to make up for their such awful defense. They managed to do that in some seasons, but that wasn’t the case last season where their offense was just average.
2023/24 OUTLOOK:
Portland selected Scoot Henderson in the draft in order for him to be their franchise PG for the future. Damian Lillard was traded away to Milwaukee and the Blazers got DeAndre Ayton, Robert Williams III and Malcolm Brogdon after all the trades they got involved in during the offseason.
The Blazers have some already interesting pieces in their roster for the future of the team. They have locked down a Center and a PG who are legit quality players, something that most teams look forward to having on their franchises. However, the bad news is that their PG Scoot Henderson is only 19 years old, so expect him to immediately play under control in the NBA will be a tall order.
Both Anfernee Simons and Shaedon Sharpe (on his rookie season) showed that they have some offensive skills, but their performances on defense were abysmal. Portland will then need to find the right balance on offense/defense on their guard rotation.
DeAndre Ayton and Robert Williams III are now in Portland, forming the best frontcourt unit that Portland has seen in a long time, as Jusuf Nurkic’s decline has been evident in the last few years. It will be interesting to check if coach Billups will use his talented two big men at the same time. Portland will also have some veterans on their roster that they can trade later in the season to grab some new draft picks or young players, but for now they can help the team at winning some games. If Scoot has a ROY worthy season right from the start, then Portland should be a fun team to follow in the West. However, given all the changes that the team endured during the offseason, I guess we can expect an up and down season from them this year at best.
