Trail Blazers 2016-17 Schedule: Top Games, Championship Odds, Record Predictions
The Portland Trail Blazers have qualified for the postseason each of the last three seasons and six times in the past eight years. Now the focus shifts toward finding more consistent playoff success after winning just two series in those recent appearances.
Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum have developed into one of the most explosive backcourt tandems in the league. That said, the question is whether the front office has put enough around them to compete with the best teams in the league.
Let's check out all of the team's important information following the league's schedule release. That's followed by a look at what's to come this season and a record prediction.
2016-17 Details
Season Opener: Tuesday, Oct. 25 vs. Utah Jazz
Championship Odds: 80-1 (via Odds Shark)
Full Schedule: NBA.com
Top Matchups
Golden State Warriors (Nov. 1, Dec. 17, Jan. 4 and Jan. 29)
Portland was riding high after upsetting the Los Angeles Clippers in the opening round of the playoffs last season. Any thoughts of a magical journey toward the NBA Finals quickly came to an end, however, as the Warriors eliminated the Blazers in five games.
Golden State has become the ultimate measuring stick in the Western Conference, and the addition of prized free agent Kevin Durant only further solidifies that status. Along with the playoff matchup, the Warriors also won three of the four regular-season meetings with Rip City last season.
Furthermore, Jesse Blanchard of BBall Breakdown noted the teams are on similar paths, so there's no escaping the Dubs for Portland:
The Blazers must make significant strides defensively in order to make the head-to-head battles more competitive. They gave up at least 120 points in five of the nine contests last year. That's not going to get the job done, even for a team with dynamic offensive threats of its own.
While Portland won't be able to keep pace with the Dubs in the standings during the course of the regular season, the goal is to keep improving to the point where it's a threat come playoff time. The Warriors showed the Blazers how much of a gap they must close to make that happen.
Minnesota Timberwolves (Jan. 1, March 6, March 25 and April 6)
The rise of the T-Wolves figures to become one of the season's most intriguing stories. They finished with a measly 29 wins last season, but they figure to improve on that by quite a bit as they turn the corner on a long-term rebuilding effort.
In fact, Minnesota's expected improvement combined with the Utah Jazz looking to get back in the playoffs after missing by one game could pose a threat to the Blazers' playoff hopes if they get off to a slow start. That's why it would be hard to consider them a postseason lock despite their recent success.
CSN Northwest Blazers insider Jason Quick provided his West outlook:
There are a lot of question marks in the conference outside of the top three. The Warriors, Clippers and San Antonio Spurs are seemingly the known commodities. It leaves teams such as the Blazers, Wolves and Jazz to battle for the remaining spots.
And, as those predicated standings indicate, if the T-Wolves take an even bigger step forward than expected, the Blazers could find themselves in quite a battle for a spot. So the meetings with Minnesota are key in keeping a leg up for those hotly contested berths.
Record Prediction
The Blazers didn't make a major splash in free agency. They focused on taking care of their own, keeping Allen Crabbe, Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard in the mix, while focusing the rest of their resources on filling voids on the roster with players such as Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli.
While it amounts to a solid summer, the moves get overshadowed by some of the more blockbuster news, led by Durant's choice of Golden State. Still, Mike Richman of the Oregonian noted Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey is happy with the results:
"We came into the summer, we talked about the depth of the roster, there's probably some redundancy. But this was going to be the last year we were going to have cap room for the foreseeable future. ... I think we maximized our cap room. We had some holes, maybe not positionally, but in terms of skill-set, that we identified. We were able to do, I think, a pretty admirable job in free agency.
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Exactly how much production Portland gets from the frontcourt will be the deciding factor in how good it can be. The backcourt is rock-solid, and Turner should bring stability to the small forward spot. But there's some uncertainty on the interior.
Mason Plumlee, Al-Farouq Aminu and Ezeli figure to log the most minutes. Yet getting a breakout campaign from one of the unheralded reserves—Leonard, Harkless or Noah Vonleh—would go a long way in making sure the team gets into the playoffs.
All told, the Blazers should have enough firepower to earn another postseason appearance. Finding success once they get there is still an uphill climb after limited upgrades during the offseason, though.
Prediction: 43-39
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