The Portland Trail Blazers will be playing the games that matter very soon. Here are some reasons to be excited for the Blazers heading into the regular season.
Just like most seasons, Las Vegas and NBA media people around the NBA world are doubting that the Portland Trail Blazers can repeat as one of the top teams in the NBA and make another appearance in the Western Conference Finals. Most media outlets and sports books have them winning between 42-46 games and fighting for a playoff spot.
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But if you ask fans in Portland or people around the organization, there are high expectations for this team heading into the 2019-20 season. The Blazers’ Western Conference Finals appearance set this city on fire and showed just how good this team could be with Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum as their best players.
Now with Hassan Whiteside in town, Rodney Hood getting more comfortable and Anfernee Simons getting a ton of hype, Rip City is pumped for this squad.
What’s even more impressive is they were able to make that deep playoff run without their young stud at center, Jusuf Nurkic, who broke his leg right before the playoffs. Nurkic will be back at some point this season, and once he returns, this team becomes even deeper.
The Blazers did move on from some longtime players and will have to spend time the rest of preseason and in the early season getting their new guys established. But Terry Stotts is still the head coach and Lillard and McCollum are under contract for the long-term future, so this team will be just fine.
With all that said, here are five reasons to be excited for the Blazers going into the 2019-20 season.