Categories
NBA

Portland Trail Blazers Predictions: 2012 NBA Future Lines & Gambling Analysis

Portland Trail Blazers Season Preview – NBA Predictions

The Portland Trail Blazers are coming off a disappointing season. In what began with such promise, a 7-2 start in a lockout-shortened year quickly turned into a depressing scene for fans in Rip City, as the team seemingly stopped trying to win when faced with adversity.  

Odds to win (By bovada.lv)
2013 NBA Championship: 125/1
2013 Western Conference: 66/1

Sloppy play and a rumored mutiny against then-head coach Nate McMillan led to numerous departures at the trade deadline—including defensive stoppers Gerald Wallace and Marcus Camby—and while 2013 is a new year, it marks the beginning of yet another rebuilding process for the Trail Blazers franchise.

The Blazers entered the 2012 offseason with dreams of high draft picks and big-time free-agent acquisitions. The latter never happened, as the team missed out on free agent center Roy Hibbert, but the lottery was kind to them, as they chose point guard Damian Lillard and big man Meyers Leonard with the second and eleventh overall picks. Both selections have transitions to make at the next level, but both offer a lot of upside in the team’s new up-tempo scheme.

The question to the new season is whether or not LaMarcus Aldridge can find help on offense. He showed last season that while he is an All-Star and a true go-to option, he simply can’t do things by himself.

The good news is that they have a few options when it comes to finding that second scorer. Lillard, despite being just a rookie, has the potential to put up points each game, as he has been touted as a score-first point guard up to this point. His transition to facilitator will take some of that away, but no pure scorer has ever truly shed the itch to put the ball in the basket.

Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews are two more options on the perimeter. Both can shoot the lights out when getting consistent touches, and under new head coach Terry Stotts, they should be given plenty of opportunities to succeed. Even J.J. Hickson has a chance to step up big. He showed flashes of brilliance with the team late last year, and if he can provide the same aggression and energy he has in the past, he’ll be a spark whether he’s off the bench or in the starting unit. [ad-6571516]

A move that went under the radar—just as Portland hoped it would—last season was the releasing of former No. 1 pick Greg Oden. The Blazers had hung onto hopes that the big man could come back from incessant injury problems to become a productive player, but in five years he’s played just 82 games, and it was time to clear the drawing board and start from scratch. The team has attempted to do that this year with the re-signing of Hickson, the drafting of Leonard and the acquisition of Joel Freeland from England. There’s no denying, though, that the team is shallow up front, and that’s going to be a problem if recent injury trends continue.

Depth as a whole is going to be an issue this season. The veteran leaders on this team are in there early-to-mid twenties, and the only players with more experience off the bench have never been an integral part of a rotation.

Overall, expect this Trail Blazers season to be a year of trial and error. A new head coach, a new point guard and one of the youngest rosters in the league isn’t exactly a recipe for success, but it certainly creates for an exciting brand of basketball. There will be times when this team looks their inexperienced age, and then there will be times when they simply forget they’re the underdog.

The team from the Pacific Northwest has the unfortunate privilege of being in one of the most competitive divisions in all of basketball. The only elite squad of the bunch is the Thunder, but the Denver Nuggets are creeping their way up the power rankings and the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves will both be vying for playoff spots.

Trail Blazers prediction

Keep expectations low for Portland this season, but keep an eye out to see how Aldridge and Lillard jell as the year goes on. The Blazers could very well be in the mix for the final spot out West, but a brutal final month of the season filled with nothing but postseason hopefuls—and a few true contenders—will make it tough for the team to reach their playoff goals this season.

By Cappers Picks

Articles on CappersPicks.com are written by Q (the Head Honcho) at Cappers Picks or by our resident "in house" handicapper Razor Ray Monohan! Enjoy the free picks folks! "Pad that bankroll one day at a time!"