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Heading into the 2021-22 offseason, Portland Trail Blazers star goalie Damian Lillard has been transparent noting that the Blazers as they are currently built are not good enough to compete for a championship. Under that ultimatum, Blazers general manager Neil Olshey stepped out and made modest but not groundbreaking additions to Portland’s roster. Evaluating the league in its first power standings after the free agency frenzy, CBS Sports’ Colin Ward-Henninger considered Portland the team with the biggest drop in improvement.
Ward-Henninger opened his story by praising the ambition of teams like the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers, before acknowledging the Blazers’ failure to quell Lillard’s “high-profile calls for help”. Here’s how he rated the Blazers, the No.20 team in their power standings.
“If Damian Lillard wanted to come back from the Tokyo Olympics in a more competitive roster, he’s probably not very happy right now. The Blazers may still have a move to make, but for now, bringing Norman Powell back on a $ 90million contract has been the big deal of the offseason – depending on what you think of Ben McLemore, Cody Zeller and Tony Snell. Lillard’s situation will be closely watched over the next couple of months as Portland doesn’t look any closer to a title than at the end of last season. “
The offseason remains young, and the official NBA 2021-22 start date of October 19 remains over two months away. Although, as currently evaluated, the Blazers are the No.9 ranked team in the Western Conference, essentially play-in territory. The link to the rest of Ward-Henninger’s rankings can be found above.
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