Blazers Vet Striving to Be All-Star This Season

Is this a possibility for him this season?

The Portland Trail Blazers have a loaded frontcourt entering the new NBA season, making head coach Chauncey Billups have some difficult decisions ahead of him. Portland has center Deandre Ayton as the likely starter but the team's decision to draft rookie Donovan Clingan out of UConn does create some questions.

The biggest one will be how the team weighs playing time for everyone. In addition to Ayton and Clingan, the Trail Blazers also have Robert Williams III coming back from injury.

It's a good problem to have as the Trail Blazers look to be more competitive this season. But just how competitive will this team be and could they have a player make the All-Star team?

Chris Dodson of ClutchPoints put together a list of bold predictions for the upcoming Trail Blazers season. Within that, he predicted that Ayton would become an All-Star this year,

"Ayton's presence in the paint, combined with improved offensive skills, will make him a dominant force in the Western Conference. Rudy Gobert's goose has been cooked thanks to an inability to close games in the Olympics and NBA. Anthony Davis will have another down year trying to keep LeBron James fresh. A slew of injuries helps Ayton slide into one of the final spots."

For Ayton to become an All-Star, he would need to average around 20 points and 12 rebounds. Last season, he posted 16.7 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.

His career-high came in the 2019-20 season while with the Phoenix Suns. He posted 18.2 points and 11.5 rebounds per game for Phoenix.

With the abundance of talent in the Western Conference, Ayton's making the All-Star team is slim. But we can never say never.

Each season, we see players take their games to the next level and maybe it's time for Ayton to show why he was selected first overall back in 2018. He has the skill set needed to dominate on the offensive side of the ball but has yet to consistently show what he can do.

His inside game hasn't flourished as much as his teams would have liked and he has refused to be a bruiser inside. If he changes this mindset, the sky is the limit for Ayton given his talent for scoring the basketball.

Portland doesn't need him to become an All-Star but it couldn't hurt if he did, especially in his trade value. Ayton is unlikely to be in the long-term plans of the Trail Blazers so he is auditioning for every NBA team this season with his play.

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