Vegas Over/Under: 42.5
Fromal’s Record Projection: 43-39
The Bet: Avoid but lean over
The Western Conference is brutally hard, along with the Portland Trail Blazers’ previous cap missteps will wind up costing them, as they didn’t have a lot of paths with which they can improve their roster.
They even had to give up on Allen Crabbe within a cost-cutting order, trading him to move closer to preventing luxury-tax penalties and future interactions with the dreaded repeater tax.
But Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum are still in Rip City, and they’ll team up with Jusuf Nurkic to keep this squad in playoff contention. At this time, it’s tough to oversell precisely how significant that last part is.
The huge man, who had been acquired from the Denver Nuggets at a midseason trade, broke out in a big way after he found himself in a new environment. He had been more focused on the defensive end compared before and flashed some facilitating flourishes that never showed up in the Mile High City.
While the Bosnian was on the ground, Portland outscored the opposition by 9.2 points per 100 possessions–much better than the minus-1.9 net rating earned .
But is that sustainable? Only time will tell, though competitions have a scouting report on Nurkic this year. Conditioning issues may also pop up as he’s tasked with enjoying extensive moments for the very first time.
Especially with small convincing depth on the wings, do not expect the Blazers to take massive strides forward. Nurkic should assist the star-studded backcourt maintain its playoff-caliber level, but the group’s ceiling still feels rather capped.
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