Despite Injuries and Poor Defense, the Blazers Remain Sour-Proof

The Trail Blazers’ successes on offense balanced with their suspect defense to earn them a decent spot inside Basketball News’ latest edition of the Sour Rankings. Basketball News’ list turns the traditional power rankings formula on its head and takes a snapshot of the misery that a specific team might be enduring at that moment.

With injuries and poor defense in mind, the Blazers finished at No. 17 on the list (remember, No. 30 is the ideal place). Basketball News contributor Ethan Fuller pointed to Enes Kanter’s promotion to a feature role in his analysis of Portland’s placement in the rankings.

With Jusuf Nurkic on the shelf, Enes Kanter has started the last four games at center, and boy, has that been an experience. Kanter notched 13 points and 22 rebounds versus OKC, and Portland still lost because of his inability to defend. I’ll be interested to see how Terry Stotts approaches next week’s matchup with Houston and their scoring bigs in DeMarcus Cousins and Christian Wood.

The Blazers finish out this week’s slate of games with visits to Houston and Chicago to face the Rockets and Bulls.

You can read the full Sour Rankings at Basketball News.