The league clearly has no confidence in the 2024-25 iteration of the Portland Trail Blazers.
According to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, this year’s Trail Blazers are tied with the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors for the fewest games broadcast nationally this year, with four.
The Los Angeles Lakers, who finished with the eighth-best record in the Western Conference (47-35) and were eliminated in the first round, lead the standings with 39 games. The Golden State Warriors (36), Boston Celtics (34), New York Knicks (34), Dallas Mavericks (30) and Phoenix Suns (30) are the other teams in the upper echelon of national games, which are usually awarded to big-market clubs and/or teams the league considers worthy of consideration.
One last order: the same list but sorted by the number of nationally televised games, including NBA TV.
LAL: 39
Gross vehicle weight: 36
BOS: 34
NYK: 34
DAL: 30
PHX: 30
SIZE: 29
MIL: 27
PHI: 27
MIN: 25
OKC: 25
BAC: 21
SAS: 21
Memory: 17
KEYS: 16
IND: 14
Missing: 13
NOP: 13
BAG: 12
HOU: 11
ENT: 9
ATL: 8
CHA: 7… https://t.co/igejprP4Nf– Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) August 15, 2024
In 2023-24, the Trail Blazers finished 15th in the Western Conference with a 21-61 record. The San Antonio Spurs, who had an identical record but won a tiebreaker and were 14th in the conference last year, were assigned 21 games this season.
In part, perhaps the NBA expects the Gregg Popovich-coached team to improve, thanks to the addition of veterans like Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, the internal growth of its youth movement and perhaps new No. 4 overall pick Stephon Castle, a one-time title-winning point guard from the University of Connecticut.
But it’s more likely that the league wants the world to watch a lot more Spurs games than Trail Blazers games because of the Rookie of the Year season that burgeoning phenom Victor Wembanyama is having. The 7-foot-1 center, a member of the All-Defensive First Team, already looked like one of the NBA’s best players by the end of the season.
In 71 games, Wembanyama averaged 21.4 points on .465/.325/.796 shooting percentages, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks and 1.2 swipes per night.
After completing this series of performances, he had a spectacular summer, leading his country’s French team to a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
Trail Blazers rookie Scoot Henderson, the third overall pick in last season’s G League Ignite and expected to set the league on fire, has had a disappointing start to the season. He’s averaging just 14.0 points on .385/.325/.819 shooting, 5.4 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game while missing 20 games due to injury. And the NBA clearly doesn’t expect San Antonio’s seventh overall pick this year, former Huskies center Donovan Clingan, to have a Wembanyama-like run.
More Trail Blazers: Portland’s Donovan Clingan Has Surprisingly Low Chances of Being Rookie of the Year
