John Hollinger of The Athletic wrote about the bottom of the western conference and is predicting the Portland Trail Blazers to finish second-from-last in the conference with just 31 wins:

14. Portland Trail Blazers (31-51)

Portland had a strong second half last season and finished with 36 wins, nearly scratching its way into the Play-In Tournament in the final weeks. But the Blazers seem to be a likely regression candidate on multiple fronts. For starters, the underlying data from a year ago suggests the Blazers weren’t quite as good as their record, with a minus-3.0 per game scoring margin.

It remains to be seen how this team will score. Minus Simons and Ayton, the Blazers seem like a near-guarantee for a bottom-five offense, with Deni Avdija (who was genuinely good last season and sh

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