The Blazers are back, but will they be worth watching?
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
The Blazers tip off Wednesday night on what fans hope will be the last of their rebuilding years. Photo: Alika Jenner/Getty Images
The Portland Trail Blazers tip off their season Wednesday night as the NBA season gets underway and expectations are, to be honest, not great.
Why it matters: Entering their second season after the Dame Lillard era — with a roster full of unproven young players — the team isn't likely to win a ton of games, but that doesn't mean they won't be interesting.
State of play: One of the biggest questions: How will all of the players on the team fit together?
- Due to injuries, the team's five most important players — Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Anfernee Simons, Jerami Grant and Deandre Ayton — played only four games together last season, leading to a 21-61 record, the worst in the Western Conference.
- The team didn't add many impact players in the offseason, though they did trade for small forward Deni Avdija and they picked up a 7-foot center, Donovan Clingan, with the seventh pick in the 2024 draft.
Thought bubble: Even with those additions, though, the team is likely going to produce a record bad enough that they'll be rewarded with a high pick in next year's draft, when several players with the potential to change the trajectory of the franchise will be available.
The intrigue: Even though the Blazers are likely to be among the worst teams in the league, that doesn't mean they won't be worth watching, said Sean Highkin, who writes The Rose Garden Report and has been covering the NBA for more than a decade.
- "You want to just watch these games hoping to see the month-to-month, week-to-week progression from some of these young guys that are — whenever the team is good again — going to be part of it," Highkin told Axios.
What we're watching: Henderson, the third pick in the 2023 draft, had a rough start to his rookie season but seemed much more comfortable in the final weeks of last season. Will he pick up where he left off and make a leap in his sophomore year?
- And at least this year you won't need a pricey cable subscription to watch the games.
The bottom line: You shouldn't tune into Blazers games this year expecting much in the way of wins, but if you keep your expectations in check and watch for signs of progress, you might just see the beginnings of how a winning team is built.