NBA Clearly Has No Confidence in Trail Blazers This Season

Portland is projected to be doomed for its fourth straight lottery season.

Dec 8, 2023; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe (17) grabs a rebound during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports / Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

The league clearly has zero confidence in the 2024-25 iteration of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Per Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, this year's Trail Blazers are tied with the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors for the fewest nationally broadcast games this year, with four.

The Los Angeles Lakers, who finished with just the eighth-best record in the Western Conference at 47-35 and were knocked out in the first round, lead the tally with 39 games. The Golden State Warriors (36), Boston Celtics (34), New York Knicks (34), Dallas Mavericks (30), and Phoenix Suns (30) are the other teams in the upper echelon of national games, usually ascribed to clubs in big markets and/or teams expected by the league to be worth watching.

One final order: The same list but sorted based on number of national TV games, including NBA TV.

LAL: 39
GSW: 36
BOS: 34
NYK: 34
DAL: 30
PHX: 30
DEN: 29
MIL: 27
PHI: 27
MIN: 25
OKC: 25
LAC: 21
SAS: 21
MEM: 17
CLE: 16
IND: 14
MIA: 13
NOP: 13
SAC: 12
HOU: 11
ORL: 9
ATL: 8
CHA: 7… https://t.co/igejprP4Nf

— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) August 15, 2024

In 2023-24, the Trail Blazers finished as the West's No. 15 seed with a 21-61 record. The San Antonio Spurs, who sported an identical record but won a tiebreaker and thus were the conference's No. 14 seed last year, have been awarded a whopping 21 games this season.

In part, perhaps the NBA expects the Gregg Popovich-coached squad to improve, thanks to the additions of veterans like Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, internal growth of its youth movement, and perhaps intriguing new No. 4 draft pick Stephon Castle, a title-winning one-and-done point guard out of the University of Connecticut.

But it's most likely that the league wants the world to watch a lot more Spurs games than Trail Blazers games because of the Rookie of the Year season enjoyed by burgeoning phenom Victor Wembanyama. The 7-foot-4 All-Defensive First Team center already looked like one of the NBA's best players by season's end.

Across 71 contests, Wembanyama posted averages of 21.4 points on .465/.325/.796 shooting splits, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.6 blocks, and 1.2 swipes a night.

After wrapping that run up, he enjoyed a spectacular summer in leading his native Team France to a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.

Trail Blazers rookie Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 pick out of the G League Ignite last season who was expecting to light the league on fire himself, had a deeply underwhelming debut run. He averaged just 14.0 points on .385/.325/.819 shooting splits, 5.4 dimes, and 3.1 boards per bout, while missing 20 games due to injury. And the NBA clearly doesn't expect San Antonio's No. 7 pick this year, former Huskies center Donovan Clingan, to have a Wembanyama-esque run.

More Trail Blazers: Portland's Donovan Clingan Given Surprisingly Low New Rookie of the Year Odds