1. Portland Trail Blazers off to slow start
Up until this point, every team that we’ve discussed has exceeded expectations. But there is one ball club that does not fall under this category. That team is the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Trail Blazers are coming off a season that saw them finish with the third-best record in the west and advance to the conference finals for the first time since 2000. Combined with the fact that the Warriors could be out of the running for a playoff spot, the Trail Blazers were supposed to be one of the teams in a position to capitalize on the Golden State’s misfortunes.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. Portland has dropped eight of its previous 10 games and is the proud owner of a 5-12 record. With injuries to several frontcourt players, the Trail Blazers decided to take a chance on 10-time All-Star Carmelo Anthony in an attempt to get things going in the right direction.
This move hasn’t produced much success as of yet, with the team going 0-3 since his arrival and Melo is shooting just 34.1 percent overall and 31.3 percent from downtown.
Bearing that in mind, there is still time for him and the team to bounce back from a woeful start. On the flip side, if the Blazers don’t manage to turn things around, they could find themselves struggling for one lower playoff seeds, which was not expected for a ball club that entered the season with championship aspirations.