5. Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers had an interesting summer. They made a lot of changes, essentially swapping out Al-Farouq Aminu, Mo Harkless, Seth Curry, Evan Turner, Meyers Leonard, Jake Layman and Enes Kanter for a much different group of Hassan Whiteside, Kent Bazemore, Mario Hezonja, Anthony Tolliver and Pau Gasol.
While some may say the Blazers got better, others have argued that they got worse. Personally, I don’t know that either is true, instead it may be more accurate to say that they simply ‘got different.’ It’ll be interesting to see what they get out of Whiteside, whose attitude was a large issue in Miami last season, and which version of erratic players such as Bazemore, Hezonja and Rodney Hood show up in Portland.
That’s a lot of question marks that could swing the Blazers well above or well below this slot where I’ve predicted them. However, as long as they have Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum as their pillars, they will remain a playoff team. Portland is another team that’s been tempting to count out the past two seasons. Instead they’ve responded by netting the third seed in the West both times.
They could very well do so again and continue to shine as one of the best teams in the West like they have the past two years. Or they could under-perform and drop below where I have them. Either way, I feel quite safe pinning them at fifth and most definitely as a playoff team.