Reaching the NBA playoffs for eight straight years from 2014 to 2021, the Portland Trail Blazers had been a competitive team in the Western Conference for quite some time, but they were never quite a championship-caliber threat.
After parting ways with longtime head coach Terry Stotts, the Trail Blazers have hired former five-time All-Star Chauncey Billups as their new head coach ahead of the 2021-22 season.
Everything that could have gone wrong for the Blazers went wrong last year, as Joe Cronin took over as the team’s general manager after Neil Olshey was fired in December over allegations of work misconduct, then All-Star Damian Lillard ended up playing in just 29 games due to abdominal surgery in January.
Portland finished the 2021-22 season 27-55, its worst record in nearly two decades, and now they face a tough climb in what is once again a competitive Western Conference.
Rumors surrounding Damian Lillard’s future in Portland have been going on for some time now and while many are still excited for him to leave the Trail Blazers, it doesn’t look like Lillard is leaving any time soon.
Not only is he under contract through the 2024-25 season with no opt-outs, but Lillard recently put pen to paper on a whopping two-year, $121 million contract extension that keeps him in a Portland Trail Blazers through 2026-27. season, i.e. whether he should go for his $63.2 million option for this final season.
“I don’t think you win something like that just by going out there and scoring a bunch of points,” Lillad said in the team’s press release. “What’s missing in our league is the character, the fight, the passion and the pride, you know, not just the name on the back, but the name on the front, and the impact you have on people with which you come into contact.”
Lillard is “all-in” with the Trail Blazers right now and the team’s front office has taken the necessary steps to help Lillard succeed on the field.
The Portland Trail Blazers have a new look for them heading into the new year and their recent moves this offseason could set them up to return to the playoffs in the 2022-23 season.
NBA Draft: Shaedon Sharpe (7), Jabari Walker (57)
While they would have liked to land a Top 4 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, the Portland Trail Blazers had to settle for the No. 7 pick, a pick that was very successful in some trade negotiations on Draft night. .
Ultimately, retaining that lottery pick, the Blazers selected Shaedon Sharpe, who enrolled at the University of Kentucky but never played in a single game.
One of the biggest question marks in the draft, Sharpe is still just 19 and has a lot to prove to gain time on the court in his rookie season. Portland hoped they could work with their Summer League rookie and start molding him into the kind of player they wanted him to be, but Sharpe only ended up playing about five minutes in Las Vegas in due to a small labral. tear in the left shoulder.
The good news for Portland is that their seventh overall pick hasn’t had surgery and could be ready to return to activity around training camp.
Entering the season as a major unknown, Shaedon Sharpe could very well take a “redshirt year” in the NBA, using his rookie season to work on his craft in the G League while continuing to train with the team. from time to time. Expect to see Damian Lillard and Anfernee Simons working with the rookie from day one.
As for their second-round pick, Jabari Walker has proven to be a solid rotation player for the Trail Blazers. In the Summer League, Walker averaged 12.4 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.0 steals, and 1.0 blocks in five games, helping the Blazers win the Summer League championship.
By signing a true rookie contract with the team and not a two-way deal as many expected, Walker will likely see some playing time off the bench during his rookie season due to his defensive tenacity and skill. tenacity.
Overall, though, the two Portland rookies will likely spend the vast majority of their rookie seasons polishing their craft and working on their game as a whole, not seeing much playing time compared to other rookies at the league.
Free Agency/Trades:
Re-signed: G Anfernee Simons (4 years/100 months), C Jusuf Nurkić (4 years/70 months), C Drew Eubanks (1 year/1.9 months)
Additions: F Jerami Grant, G Gary Payton II
Departures: G Eric Bledsoe
The most important aspect of the offseason for the Trail Blazers this offseason was retaining both Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic simply because they had no options to replace either.
Investing a total of $170 million between these two players, Simons and Nurkic return to Portland on new four-year deals, helping solidify the core of this team by advancing alongside Damian Lillard.
In his first big move as Trail Blazers general manager, Joe Cronin came out and got some extra help from Lillard, trading some draft picks with the Detroit Pistons in exchange for versatile forward Jerami Grant.
Spending the last two years in Detroit, Jerami Grant really broke out in a big way and proved to be a key No. 2 or No. 3 scoring option for a rival-type team. In 101 total games with the Pistons, Grant averaged 20.9 points and shot 42.8 percent from the floor, giving Lillard a firm No. 2 option alongside Simons.
Perhaps one of the most underrated signings of the offseason came from the Blazers who signed Gary Payton II, who just won a title with the Golden State Warriors, to a $28 million deal on three years. Maybe Portland overpaid Payton, but he turned out to be an elite-level defensive player, exactly what the Trail Blazers have been lacking over the years.
After all, they ranked last in the league last season in defensive rating, so finding ways to improve at that end of the field is key. Jerami Grant is a very solid defender in his own right, third year forward Nassir Little should provide some much needed defensive depth on the wing as he returns from injury and now Gary Payton II can be their main defensive stop being given his strength and athleticism to defend virtually 1-3 on the field.
Getting better defensively was obviously a point of attention for the Trail Blazers in free agency and in trade talks, which is why they took the steps they did.
Outlook for the 2022-23 season:
The most important factor for the Trail Blazers heading into the 2022-23 season is whether or not their secondary talents are good enough to compete in the Western Conference.
We know what to expect from Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic, but the rest of this list is slightly unproven right now outside of guys like Jerami Grant and Josh Hart.
Justise Winslow has struggled to stay healthy, Nassir Little is coming out of central muscle surgery and Trendon Watford and Keon Johnson are still young talents looking to earn more playing time for themselves.
We’ve talked about how defensive improvement will help this team improve from the terrible season they’re coming off of and the same can be said for Portland’s bench score as they finished 25th in the league l year in bench points per game.
Lillard, Simons, Hart, Grant and Nurkic could combine for 100 points each game, but if no one else scores for this team, the core Blazers will be exhausted, they may be injured and this team will have no one. to compete is heading towards the end of the season and possibly the playoffs.
While they’re certainly better than their 27-55 record from a season ago, it’s hard to imagine the Portland Trail Blazers being much better than a team record 0.500 or 45 wins over the course of the season. 2022-23 season.
With the Western Conference crowded this coming year and teams that didn’t make the playoffs last season like the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and Sacramento Kings should all be in the hunt. in the playoffs, Portland is going to have their work cut out for them.
The first month of the 2022-23 season will be very telling as to whether or not this team has what it takes to compete with some of the best of the best and possibly make it back to the playoffs.
