The Blazers might be good again, and nobody saw it coming
Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make.
What’s good y’all. It’s Prince here with another Layup Lines, and I want to talk about the Portland Trail Blazers for a minute, because did anyone see them being the best team in the NBA through the first week of the season?
I certainly did not, and I was as optimistic about them as anyone this season. Though I picked them to finish under their preseason win total of 39.5, I thought they’d push for the play-in tournament.
But after a 4-0 start to the season, including wins over the Suns, Nuggets and Lakers, Portland’s over is starting to feel like a lock and the playoffs don’t seem so farfetched either. Sure, it’s still early, and this could all go downhill in a hurry, but there are reasons to believe they can keep it up…
…we maybe should have even seen it coming.
It all starts with Damian Lillard, who was deservedly named to the NBA 75 list last year even though his inclusion was endlessly debated. Too much was made about his lack of championships and not enough about how he took a usually flawed Blazers team to the playoffs in eight straight years, including an unlikely conference finals appearance in 2019.
Doing more with less isn’t new territory for him, and Portland quietly re-tooled over their last couple years of decline. The rise of 2018 first-rounder Anfernee Simons made C.J. McCollum expendable. McCollum landed the team a key starter in Josh Hart, and trading him while Lillard was out made them just bad enough to draft Shaedon Sharpe, who’s coming along nicely.
Add in the continued development of 2019 first-rounder Nassir Little, a healthy Jusuf Nurkic and Portland’s one big offseason pickup, Jerami Grant, and you got the makings of squad Lillard can work with. He’s averaging 33 points right now. They also picked up Gary Payton II, who hasn’t even played a game yet.
The Blazers are fun. They rank…
Source : yahoo
