THE Portland Trail Blazers The team finished last season with just 21 wins, its fewest since the 2005-06 campaign.
Fans felt like they had hit rock bottom, but Andy Bailey, Bleacher Report Editor He thinks there is a level below. He predicts the team will win only 15 games in the coming season.
With apologies to Portland Trail Blazers fans, we consider them the worst team of the season (at least in terms of wins and losses).
With Malcolm Brogdon gone, Scoot Henderson should be more prominent. And while he finished his rookie season in decent fashion, he still finished with the 939th box plus/minus among the 955 rookie campaigns with 1,000+ three-point minutes in the 3-point era. We can expect him to be better, but he has a long way to go before he wins basketball.
There is a lot of development between now and the peak that Shaedon Sharpe will reach as well.
And while there are a few veterans like Deandre Ayton, Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons who could push Portland away from the league’s top lottery odds, trades of any or all of them before the February deadline could be on the table.
The Blazers would join a handful of teams in infamy by winning just 15 games, but there’s reason to believe that number could be higher.
Sure, the Blazers probably won’t be favorites most of the time, but effort alone in today’s NBA makes it difficult for teams to win just that many games.
Portland should win more than 15, but they could get dangerously close. Every team in the Western Conference should be competitive or at least aiming for a better record than last year, while the Blazers should be fighting for the best possible draft position.
With 15 wins, they would be in a great position to potentially land Cooper Flagg with the first pick in next year’s draft.
