Portland Path Blazers 2024-25 season preview: Can any of their prospects develop right into a star?
The 2024-25 NBA season is right here! We’re breaking down the most important questions, best- and worst-case situations, and fantasy outlooks for all 30 groups. Take pleasure in!
PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS
2023-24 end
Offseason strikes
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Additions: Deni Avdija, Donovan Clingan, Bryce McGowans
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Subtractions: Malcolm Brogdon, Ibou Badji, Moses Brown, Ashton Hagans
The Huge Query: Is there actually a cornerstone right here?
While you’re a fan of a really dangerous group within the midst of rebuilding, what you’re on the lookout for is a cause to consider. One thing to latch on to as a vessel to your hopes for a greater future, and ideally a someone: Devin Booker on the pre-CP3 Suns, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the early decade Thunder, Victor Wembanyama on final 12 months’s Spurs, et al.
It’s not stunning that Portland doesn’t actually have that but, barely one 12 months faraway from the franchise-shaking choice to bid farewell to Damian Lillard. However after ending with the West’s worst report in Yr 1 post-Dame — the Blazers’ fourth sub-.500 end within the final 5 seasons — this roster nonetheless feels very very like a set of free-floating celestial our bodies searching for a giant vibrant shining star to drag it into an applicable prescribed orbit.
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The Blazers’ two highest-paid gamers, ahead Jerami Grant and middle Deandre Ayton, are each productive veterans, however neither of them profiles as that sort of organizing precept. Ayton got here on late in his first season in Oregon, averaging 22.7 factors and 12.5 rebounds per sport after the All-Star break; his long-term prognosis in Portland received significantly cloudier, although, when the Blazers drafted the 7-foot-2 Clingan with the seventh total decide in June’s 2024 NBA Draft.
Grant, one in every of simply 5 gamers to common 20 factors per sport and shoot 40% from 3-point land in every of the final two seasons, may be a participant of curiosity on the commerce market … if would-be suitors can finagle a technique to tackle the rest of his huge five-year, $160 million deal with out working afoul of the apron. For his half, Avdija (who performed very effectively final season, albeit in near-total anonymity on a foul Wizards group with out a lot nationwide profile) occupies an analogous house to Grant — a succesful combo ahead who can plug a number of gaps on each ends of the ground, however extra a star-in-his-role complementary piece than a real No. 1.
Anfernee Simons has the athleticism, high-volume/high-accuracy 3-point capturing contact and off-the-bounce scoring juice to probably develop right into a prime choice. (His per-possession manufacturing over the previous few seasons really traces up fairly effectively with what Lillard put up on the identical age.) However a smaller combo guard who’s a extra pure scorer than playmaker (he’s hovered round a good-but-not-great 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio since turning into a starter) and a blaring fire-engine-red goal on the opposite finish (a slew of superior defensive metrics marked him as one of many league’s very worst defenders final season) is a difficult piece to construct round except he’s a no-doubt-top-tier offensive expertise. (And, actually, even then. See “Hawks, Atlanta.”)
The highlight, then, falls on the Blazers’ different two extremely touted younger guards: 21-year-old Shaedon Sharpe and 20-year-old Scoot Henderson. The promising begin to Sharpe’s sophomore season — practically 19 factors, six rebounds and 4 assists per sport on .550 true capturing via the first 22 video games — had been derailed by a core muscle harm that ultimately required surgical procedure. Hopes for a equally sturdy begin to Yr 3 have already hit a pace bump: a second tear of the labrum in his left shoulder, anticipated to sideline him via no less than the primary few weeks of the season.
A (slight) silver lining to Sharpe’s delayed re-entry: It clears the trail for Henderson, who struggled mightily after coming off the board third total within the 2023 NBA Draft, to attempt to cement himself as a bona fide constructing block.
Doing so would require a dramatic shot-making uptick after a rocky freshman marketing campaign that noticed Henderson shoot a ghastly 47.3% on the rim (dead-last amongst 237 gamers to take no less than 100 up-close tries) and simply 35% on all makes an attempt exterior the restricted space. When you can’t end on the cup or knock down sufficient jumpers to make opponents honor you on the perimeter, you’re going to have an awfully arduous time being a constantly optimistic offensive power, irrespective of how explosive you might be off the dribble.
With out vital strides as a finisher or pick-and-roll facilitator, it’s robust to see Henderson creating into a real foundational piece of Portland’s future puzzle. If he could make a serious leap in a single or each respects, although, then he turns into a way more fascinating prospect — one who, along with Clingan, Sharpe and whomever common supervisor Joe Cronin picks with what’s overwhelmingly prone to be an early decide within the 2025 NBA Draft, may someday type the core of the subsequent legit Blazers group. Proper now, although, that day nonetheless appears a protracted, good distance off.
Finest-case state of affairs
Ayton, Grant, Avdija and Simons spend the primary half of the season offering some semblance of a steady infrastructure through which to judge Sharpe, Henderson, Clingan and the remainder of Portland’s younger items. A few of them present actual indicators of progress and growth — the sort of sparks and glints that improve your confidence these guys actually can turn into the muse of what’s subsequent. After which, with that renewed perception in hand, Cronin’s in a position to spin off a number of of the veterans — most notably one in every of both Ayton or Robert Williams III — to scale back Portland’s positional redundancy, clearing the runway for Clingan and the guards to expertise their rising pains whereas paving the trail to a different top-of-the-lottery decide to enhance and solidify the younger core.
If every thing falls aside
Scoot nonetheless can’t shoot, Sharpe and Simons nonetheless battle to contribute with out the ball of their arms, none of them can defend — and, worse, none of them can keep wholesome and obtainable on the identical time, stopping Cronin and head coach Chauncey Billups from getting an trustworthy gauge on which mixtures might need promise. The marketplace for Portland’s highest-paid vets proves chilly sufficient that Grant and Ayton keep put, serving to the Blazers win extra video games than they’d actually favor forward of the Cooper Flagg draft. The season ends not with a bang, however with a Pacific Northwest drizzle of a whimper: out of the play-in, out of the highest of the draft, within the mushy center of the league’s decrease class, with out proof of a transparent manner again towards the highest.
Fantasy spin
Portland is likely one of the least intriguing groups in fantasy basketball. I’ve willingly drafted Simons as a result of his ADP is inexpensive within the seventh spherical, although you may be capable of snag him within the eighth. Relating to drafting Ayton, I favor ready for a spherical or two to scoop a giant man who will not value a fifth-round decide.
Grant will in all probability discover his technique to one other group sooner or later, however till then, he is solely helpful for factors and 3s — a simple fade even at his ADP. Avdija is a participant I am anticipating to outperform his ADP. He is a sleeper going within the eleventh spherical with a flexible skillset for fantasy. Henderson is best for factors leagues, however if you happen to can abdomen his inefficiency and turnovers, he may make for a good supply of factors and assists within the backend of drafts. — Dan Titus
2024-25 schedule
Hope springs everlasting within the preseason — which, on this case, means the Blazers can be each horrible on their deserves and in a position to offload their useful veterans with sufficient time to actually rack up the L’s on the back-half of the schedule. I’ll take the beneath; it wouldn’t shock me if this 12 months’s mannequin offers the 1971-72 crew a run for its cash because the worst group in franchise historical past.
Extra season previews
East: Atlanta Hawks • Boston Celtics • Brooklyn Nets • Charlotte Hornets • Chicago Bulls • Cleveland Cavaliers • Detroit Pistons • Indiana Pacers • Miami Warmth • Milwaukee Bucks • New York Knicks • Orlando Magic • Philadelphia 76ers • Toronto Raptors • Washington Wizards
West: Dallas Mavericks • Denver Nuggets • Golden State Warriors • Houston Rockets • Los Angeles Clippers • Los Angeles Lakers • Memphis Grizzlies • Minnesota Timberwolves • New Orleans Pelicans • Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder • Phoenix Suns • Portland Path Blazers • Sacramento Kings • San Antonio Spurs • Utah Jazz
