The Portland Trail Blazers tip off their season tomorrow 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.

💭 Kale's 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?

The bottom line

There are more registered voting-age residents in Oregon than anywhere else in the country, according to cenus data based on the November 2022 election.

By the numbers: Just over 77% of voting-age residents are registered to vote, 65% of which voted two years ago in the midterms.

Flashback: In 2016, the state's Motor Voter law took effect, which automatically registers qualifying Oregonians to vote when they apply for, renew, or replace a driver license, ID card, or permit at the DMV.

• You can opt out, too.

Yes, but: Gov. Tina Kotek recently called for an independent audit of the DMV and suspended its automatic voter registration process after the state uncovered over 1,250 non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote due to an internal clerical error last month.

• The secretary of state's office is currently reviewing whether any of those individuals actually voted.

The Portland auditor's office found that Commissioner Rene Gonzalez broke campaign finance rules when he used $6,400 in public funds to edit his Wikipedia page to show that he is a Democrat. He was fined $2,400. (The Oregonian)

🥧 Shari's, the iconic Pacific Northwest 24-hour pie and lottery chain, has served its last slice in Oregon, the state's lottery officials confirmed, as all locations are now closed. (Willamette Week)

🇳🇱 A new direct flight between Portland and Amsterdam through KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will begin service next week. (Portland Business Journal)

🦪 Idaho officials are seeing less invasive quagga mussel larvae in the Snake River — the Columbia River's largest tributary — than they were last year after doubling their water sampling and boat inspection efforts. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

😢 Zula, NW Nob Hill's Mediterranean bistro, closed Sunday after less than two years of service. (Eater Portland)

It's been over a decade since James Beard award-winning chefs Gabrielle Quiñónez Denton and Greg Denton opened their Argentinian steakhouse Ox.

The big picture: The pair's restaurant is a constant on local (and national) "best of" lists and remains a staple in the city's renowned culinary scene thanks to their dedication to wood fire cooking and utilizing seasonal Pacific Northwest goodness.

• Ox recently reopened after a hood fire shuttered the restaurant in March.
• Quiñónez Denton told Axios that while they may have missed peak summer busyness, the team is enjoying the change of seasons "as the cold and wet weather sets in."

We wanted to know: If she had one meal left in Portland, what would it be?

🍱 Appetizer: At the ultra-exclusive omakase restaurant Nodoguro, Quiñónez Denton would start by "eating every raw seafood preparation that chef Ryan Roadhouse puts in front of me."

• The regular tasting menu includes 25 courses, so that's a lot of fish.

🥟 Entree: Next up, Kachka's dumplings, specifically the farmer's cheese vareniki and Siberian pelmeni. Quiñónez Denton would "go back and forth between the two."

🥧 Dessert: A seasonal fruit crisp with almond cream, "preferably a summertime version," from Nostrana.

🍸 Nightcap: A martini "maybe two" from Ringside Steakhouse.

🇪🇨 Bonus: If she could go anywhere in the world, she would head to Quito, Ecuador, to eat her grandmother's empanadas de morocho one more time — "fried meat pies with a super crispy, ground hominy dough, stuffed with minced pork, carrots, peas and aromatics."

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