The Baby Blazers are young, inexperienced, inconsistent, hard working, tough and fun. They can’t make three point shots consistently, create easy shots in the halfcourt, run a successful ATO playback or call timeouts. But they can defend, run, dunk, and play like their lives depend on it.
This is probably the best way I can describe the Portland Trail Blazers after 22 games. At 6-16, they sit as predicted, in the bottom third of the league.
Stats Deep Dive
After 22 games, the key stats include a 28th ranked offense (107.7 oRTG), a 17th ranked defense, (114.9 dRTG), shooting 35.4% from behind the arc but struggling overall with a league-worst effective field goal rate of 50.3%. The Blazers provoke a league-leading 16.9 turnovers per game, with nine of that near-17 coming from steals. Unfortunately, they turn it over and have their pockets picked just as much.
Nevertheless, several elements separate the Portland Trail Blazers from the Spurs, Wizards and Pistons and puts them in the “lottery-bound but not without a fight” category that makes up the tweener teams; in essence, the Jazz, Bulls, Hornets, Rockets, Raptors and Grizzlies (Ja Morant effect pending).
The Portland Trail Blazers are undoubtedly on the weaker end of this spectrum, but teams always have the option to move further along on this shotgun ROYGBIV evaluation method.
The Portland Trail Blazers moving further towards the V (for vintage, veteran? I can’t decide) depends on how fast or slow their young guns develop winning habits to become functional role players, starters and stars, if they can improve their shooting and if their veterans can find some health. As of December 9th, the injury reserve includes Malcolm Brogdon (knee), Deandre Ayton (knee), Robert Williams III (knee), Ish Wainright (knee), and Jerami Grant (concussion).
“It’s hard to know exactly what we’re capable of doing, when every night we have a different lineup,” rookie forward Toumani Camara told cameras after practice. In one way, he’s wrong, as the open minutes have provided key young players the opportunity to explore their game and figure out what works.
Young Guns
Each game has been a chance to watch Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, Toumani Camara, Jabari Walker and Kris Murray grow on the court. I’ve written already that Sharpe is a velociraptor opening new doors at each arena he visits, well, the rest of the Baby Blazers are the pack.
So let’s talk about the last stretch of 12 games. They include: two impressive wins on the road against the talented Cleveland Cavaliers and the surging Indiana Pacers. There was also an immaculate thumping of near-peers Utah Jazz at home. And that’s about it for the wins, which must shine bright among the great dark of losses and missing bodies.
Without fail, losses always demoralize a team, and for every positive spin on this season, there has been equal negative. The Blazers will not find moral victories in the standings. But, they can find victories in player development, teamwork and competitiveness. The Blazers don’t just go out and lose.
Billups’ coaching staff have preached the merits of “winning the right way” at the start of each season for his tenure, and each year the Blazers, despite clear limitations, come out competitive. His first year in the league Billups went 10 wins and 8 losses after 18 games, last year it was 10-4 after 14. This year it was 3-3 after six. And while the record has dropped significantly since then, only one loss was decided in the first quarter. Every other game had winnable moments.
Beyond the Score
They’re often tighter than the score makes it appear. Billups and his players have made it a trademark to play teams through four quarters, no matter the score. Rarely does the bench get cleared (mainly because injuries have already cleared it, but I digress). Recently it’s been two tight losses to the Warrior and Clippers and a closer-than-it-looked loss against the Mavericks.
“We might be down, but we’re never out,” Coach Chauncey Billups commented after the Clippers game. That do or die attitude is why the games are so close, a blessing of great repetitions for the youth while still maintaining that high draft position.
To be sure, the Blazers do not shoot well. For most of their games, they treat their spectators to choppy, irregular play. It’s all characterized by cold shooting, turnovers and weak ball movement interrupted by spirited play and scrappy-turned-confident defense.
But now, Anfernee Simons is back. He has been sensational behind the arc, shooting 15/34 in his last three games, buoying the team’s 45.2% conversation rate in the same period. Only Boston has shot better, at a torrid 50.5%. For the season the Blazers have jumped to a 35.4% (23rd) conversion rate, up from 33.8%.
Even More Stats
For the season, the Blazers have scored:
- 59.7% at the rim (29th)
- 39% on the short mid (28th)
- 43% on the long mid (15th)
- 36.4% from the corner (23rd)
- 35% from the non-corner (22nd)
It all comes to together with a 50.3 effective FG%. Good for last in the league. But in a loss to the Clippers, the Blazers finally shot a competitive 47.8% from the field. Compared to the previous efforts against the Warriors (41.1%) and Mavericks (37.1%), the Blazers were scorching.
Once again, no moral victories: the fact that the Blazers had the former world champions on the ropes and could not seal the deal sucked. The Mavericks game, while always within reach, only felt winnable when the Blazers surged in third quarter and trailed 99-98. The Clippers game coming down to another nightmare moment as the Blazers fumbed a key defensive rebound back into the opposition’s hands was, to put it lightly, a disappointment.
Aphorisms of “it’s for the best” aside, it’s a key reflector of a franchise-wide consistency: the Blazers do not just tank. Yes, yes, they have torpedoed two seasons in a row. But first was due to their franchise-player recovering from surgery. The second was a mercy killing after an inconsistent season for a team that was designed from the jump to lose.
The last time the Blazers actually outright intended to be bad for multiple seasons was in the direct aftermath of the Jail Blazers, with the husk of a championship core reduced to Damon Stoudamire and Zach Randolph to start 2004. And nobody remembers it because no one cared. The only franchise in the city became the franchise with no city.
Is Success Just Around the Corner?
Everything else since then has been a dip, a quick in-and-out for some more talent and then another challenge for the playoffs. Since the lottery was invented in 1985, the Blazers have spent only nine seasons out of 38 looking for ping-pong balls.
Ironically, it’s in this one year the Blazers have committed to truly rebuilding that they play more competitive in games despite sporting a worse record than ever. If general manager Joe Cronin’s hope was for a higher pick in the 2025 draft, a 25+ win season might not qualify against the likes of Detroit, San Antonio and Washington. Fortunately for his draft board, the Blazers are still on pace for 22 wins.
But things might change with a healthy backcourt and frontcourt. Already the players offer a counter question to those teams: why play to lose when you’re not expected to win? Like a reverse game theory, they posit if the league’s worst rosters are already designed to struggle, then there’s profit to be had if the roster’s only weaknesses are youth and injuries.
In other words, the Blazers and their counterparts are not the same. Some might tank because they are shambolic on the court. The Blazers tank because they are ready to play well. This does not mean the Blazers are sitting on some plucky play-in season, only that they are ready to play like every game is the play-in.
And most nights, it’s that delight, that youthful vigor and that we-don’t-know-any-better attitude that keeps a Blazers game massively entertaining in defeat.
