Rating the Portland Trail Blazers

By the numbers, the Portland Trail Blazers just completed one of the rottenest seasons in franchise history. Their .329 winning percentage tied them for the fourth-worst performance since they entered the NBA in 1970. Plenty of asterisks color the record, however. Franchise superstar Damian Lillard sat out most of the season. Plenty of Portland players grew during their chase for the NBA lottery. The Blazers will return a veteran lineup, bolstered by a high draft pick, players acquired in trades, or both. Rebounding into a better performance is a strong possibility.

On the other hand, rising to prominence again in the Western Conference might not be so easy. The Blazers have plenty of competition in a league that features more good teams at one time than we’ve seen in ages. Also-rans have multiple competitors to pass on the way to the top.

Given the team’s grey-zone status, we’re asking a simple question. Heading into the off-season of 2022, where would you rank the Blazers compared to other NBA franchises. We’re going to keep this simple and general, easy to participate in. We want to gauge your feelings about the team at the beginning of the summer, then again at the end.

We’re going to list six general categories: starting guards, forwards, and center, bench strength, coaching, and front office. You rank them on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being best in the NBA, 1 being abysmal. You can copy/paste the template just below this into the comments. Assign a value to each category. Then, after watching what the team does over the summer, we’ll ask you again, seeing whether you think they got better or worse.

So...on a scale of 1 to 10, given the most likely progress into the summer (which probably includes keeping center Jusuf Nurkic, swing man Josh Hart, and guard Anfernee Simons), how would you rate Portland based on...

Starting Guards:

Starting Forwards:

Starting Center:

Bench Strength:

Coaching:

Front Office:

Let us know in the comments below!