The Portland Trail Blazers have been rebuilding for\u00a0 what seems like forever. The team has gone through multiple phases since\u00a0 the early 2000s, and while the squad from the Pacific Northwest has\u00a0 a whole new identity, it appears to be stuck in limbo. <\/p>\n
Portland Trail Blazers<\/strong> Utah Jazz<\/strong><\/p>\n JJ Hickson\u2014The power forward-turned-center has departed\u00a0 the Trail Blazers organization to join the Denver Nuggets. His energy\u00a0 was infectious among the Rip City roster, but he was undersized at the 5-spot, and the departure will benefit both sides when it comes to defense.<\/p>\n Robin Lopez\u2014If Portland lacked anything during the\u00a0 2012-13 season\u2014besides a real-life bench\u2014it was a big body in the\u00a0 middle. Robin Lopez will be just that, and any offense he can give will\u00a0 be a bonus in 2014.<\/p>\n CJ McCollum\u2014For the second year in a row, the Trail\u00a0 Blazers drafted a score-first point guard with their lottery pick. This\u00a0 time, however, CJ McCollum will play the role of combo guard\u2014he just\u00a0 needs to recover from a broken bone in his foot first.<\/p>\n Mo Williams\u2014Many fans were confused when Portland\u00a0 signed Mo Williams after drafting McCollum, but the truth is that too\u00a0 many point guards is a good problem to have after the weaknesses they\u00a0 faced last season. Williams will provide shooting and veteran leadership\u00a0 in 2014, especially with the loss of McCollum early.<\/p>\n Thomas Robinson\u2014Thomas Robinson has been dealt a\u00a0 bad hand early in his career. He was drafted by the Sacramento Kings\u2014one\u00a0 of the worst organizations in basketball\u2014and his second team, the\u00a0 Houston Rockets, only wanted him to dump salary. Now he has a chance\u00a0 to learn behind LaMarcus Aldridge.<\/p>\n LaMarcus Aldridge\u2014The Blazers have one All-Star:\u00a0 power forward LaMarcus Aldridge. The big man was voted the fourth-best\u00a0 power forward in the NBA by GMs, and he is going to be the focus of\u00a0 the offense, despite incessant trade rumors. [ad-6571516]<\/p>\n Damian Lillard\u2014Portland\u2019s future revolves around\u00a0 Damian Lillard. The point guard is not an All-Star (yet), but he is\u00a0 the reigning Rookie of the Year and could be the most productive player\u00a0 on the team in just a few years.<\/p>\n Hustle can only get a team so far, but the truth is\u00a0 that Portland won\u2019t be outhustled by many teams around The Association.\u00a0 Whether it be Lillard, Nicolas Batum or Lopez, this team has players\u00a0 at all positions who will fight their tails of. Wesley Matthews is also\u00a0 a hustle player, and with pride on the line, Portland will be in the\u00a0 playoff race until the bitter end.<\/p>\n Despite the addition of Lopez, the Blazers will struggle\u00a0 defending. They don\u2019t have many shot-blockers in the rotation, and\u00a0 it will be difficult to find a true identity on the defensive side of\u00a0 the floor.<\/p>\n The Trail Blazers will improve their record from last\u00a0 season. In 2012-13, they won just 33 games, losing the final 13 contests\u00a0 of the year. This time around, the team has a bench with legitimate\u00a0 competency, meaning the reserves will complement the starters nicely.<\/p>\n Expect the Blazers to win 40-plus games this season.\u00a0 Damian Lillard predicted 46 wins for this squad, and while that\u2019s\u00a0 a bit ambitious at this point in the process, don\u2019t be shocked if\u00a0 Portland collects a record on the year of 43-39.<\/p>\n The situation to look out for with Portland has very\u00a0 little to do with its own team, and more to do with a stacked Western\u00a0 Conference. Health is always something to monitor in Rip City, but improved\u00a0 competition is going to be something to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n From last season, there are a number of teams that\u00a0 have improved. Houston, Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers and the\u00a0 Minnesota Timberwolves can all be included in that category. The bottom\u00a0 two or three seeds are going to be up for grabs, but there are five\u00a0 or six teams vying for those spots.<\/p>\n When it comes down to it, a Western Conference team\u00a0 will need 45 wins to enter the playoffs. Portland will miss that mark\u00a0 by just a couple of games, leaving them in the lottery again for 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TrailBlazers Season Preview \u2013 NBA Predictions The Portland Trail Blazers have been rebuilding for\u00a0 what seems like forever. The team has gone through multiple phases since\u00a0 the early 2000s, and while the squad from the Pacific Northwest has\u00a0 a whole new identity, it appears to be stuck in limbo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":67894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1141],"tags":[66499,8911,30501,60224,50143],"class_list":["post-67887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-rip-city","tag-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67887"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67903,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67887\/revisions\/67903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n Western Conference<\/strong>
\n 2011-12 Record: 33-34<\/strong>
\n Odds to win title: 150-1<\/strong>
\n Odds to win conference: 66\/1<\/strong>
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Top Newcomers<\/h3>\n
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Situation to Look for\u2026<\/h3>\n