Portland Trail Blazers 26th in USA Today NBA Power Rankings

The Portland Trail Blazers find themselves near the bottom of USA Today’s recent NBA power rankings.

The Blazers showed modest improvement last season and traded for Jrue Holiday, who should bring steady leadership. Damian Lillard will be out until next season, but their growth rests on the play of shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe.

One could quibble with the notion that the Blazers’ success or failure depends on Sharpe: Deni Avdija was a Most Improved Player candidate, Toumani Camara made an All-NBA Team, and Donovan Clingan made the All-Rookie team… and none of those players are over 25. This isn’t to mention the addition of Jrue Holiday, the addition-by-subtraction of losing DeAndre Ayton (sorry), and the possible growth of one Scoot Henderson.

It’s harder to argue that the Blazers should be much higher than 26th. Yes, they are probably better than a handful of teams ranked above them (I’m looking at you, Washington Wizards), but it would really only take one or two untimely injuries for this season to go from pretty interesting to a real bummer.

The Blazers finished last season 36-46, only the 15th time in the franchise’s 54 seasons they finished with 36 or fewer wins, but three of those seasons have come in the last three consecutive years.