This was supposed to be the year the Portland Trail Blazers blazed their path.
The team had new ownership on the way. Damian Lillard was back. The head coach and general manager both received contract extensions. Shaedon Sharpe and Toumani Camara were also extended. The team brought in veteran point guard Jrue Holiday to mentor Scoot Henderson. Deni Avdija and Donovan Clingan were primed to break out.
Then it all fell apart, and the team once again finds itself shuffling to the finish line in another season where the franchise can’t seem to figure out which direction it wants to go.
Head coach Chauncey Billups was caught up in a gambling scandal and suspended after the season opener. Sharpe was mercurial before going on the shelf with a fibula stress fracture that will likely end his season. Camara has been inconsistent. Henderson missed the first half of the season with a torn hamstring. Clingan and Avdija have been revelations, when they haven’t been injured, which has been the case with unfortunate regularity. Holiday’s play has dropped off, as has that of fellow veteran Jerami Grant.
The Blazers, after getting above .500 following a four game winning streak in late January, now find themselves four games under .500, thanks to a six game slide following that winning streak. They now sit in tenth place in the conference standings and hold the final play in spot.
And that is how the Trail Blazers once again find themselves stuck in the middle.
With Avdija in and out of the lineup with a back injury, Sharpe out, and Clingan banged up, the Trail Blazers lack the ability to make much of an impact in the postseason. Portland would almost certainly play either the Warriors or the Clippers in the first play in round, and then likely face the other team for the eighth seed should they win the first game. The winner of that matchup would earn the right to be a first round sacrifice to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Portland is already 0-2 against the Clippers but is 3-1 against the Warriors.
Could the Blazers make it out of the play in? Maybe. With the state of their roster, they may be better off picking up one more solid lottery pick. The only way the team even keeps its first round pick is if it misses the playoffs. Should they make it out of the play in round, their pick is owed to the Chicago Bulls.
However, the team doesn’t even control its own path if it tries to tank.
Portland has the easiest remaining strength of schedule in the entire NBA, and they may win games without even trying to. To guarantee the lottery, they would have to lose more than the Memphis Grizzlies, who sit seven games below them in the standings.
The difficulty of the Trail Blazers being able to out tank the Grizzlies increased last Wednesday when they beat Memphis 122-114. While they defeated the team they needed to lose to, the Blazers have also regularly shown why they struggle against even mediocre teams. They blow leads with regularity. They turn the ball over often. And strikingly, they somehow can’t figure out how to inbound the basketball.
They turned in a master class of all three of those struggles against the Charlotte Hornets earlier this week, coughing up a 19 point lead in a 103-101 loss to remain locked into tenth place in the West.
The Trail Blazers are stuck.
They can’t move up far enough to make significant noise in the playoffs. They can’t tank far enough to meaningfully improve their draft position. Their only choice, injury mangled and flawed roster and all, is to shuffle toward the second play in game and let the chips fall where they may.
While the Trail Blazers may be stuck in the middle, how they finish the season will have a big impact on the team’s future. A strong finish could lead to new owner Tom Dundon keeping general manager Joe Cronin and acting coach Tiago Splitter.
Should the team stagger its way to the finish even with the easy schedule, Splitter and Cronin are likely gone. They may not be the only ones out the door either.
No path is particularly appealing to the Trail Blazers as the stretch run approaches, and in a roller coaster of a season, that seems appropriate.
Be the first to comment