Portland Trail Blazers Hold Steady at No. 22 in NBA Power Rankings

John Schuhmann of NBA.com kept the Portland Trail Blazers steady at No. 22 in his second-to-last weekly power rankings of the season after a week in which the Blazers went 3-1.

In the article, Schuhmann highlighted Portland’s late-season Play-In push that ultimately fell short, especially the stretch that began in January and saw the Blazers shoot up in the wins column.

The Blazers’ surprising run for a Play-In spot in the West has come up short, but they took a big step forward this season and a Lottery trip means that they get to keep their first-round pick (owed to the Bulls if it was outside the top 14). From mid-January to early March, they went 15-6 with the league’s second-ranked defense. It was a pretty soft stretch of schedule (only two of the 15 wins came against teams currently over .500), but it was something to build on.

Schuhmann also gave one takeaway for each team. His takeaway from Portland’s season was the improvement of guard Scoot Henderson and the ascension of forward Deni Avdija.

Though his per-game numbers are down from his rookie year, Scoot Henderson has taken a step forward in his efficiency this season. The bigger story in Portland has been the continued improvement of Deni Avdija, who has gone from 12.4 points per 36 minutes on a true shooting percentage of 53.5% two seasons ago to 20.3 per 36 on 60.5% this year. The 24-year-old has even gaudier numbers since the All-Star break and is under contract for three more seasons at just $13.1 million per season.

Portland’s ranking puts the franchise just below the Phoenix Suns and just above the San Antonio Spurs, which is where the Blazers find themselves in the overall NBA standings.

With one week to go in the 2024-25 NBA regular season, Portland has matchups with the Utah Jazz, Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers coming up. Despite being eliminated from the Play-In race on Sunday, this final week could still prove very important for the lottery odds as the Blazers are one of three teams with 35 wins.