Season Preview: Portland Trail Blazers
Since taking on new management, the Blazers have been in heavy rebuild mode for the past two years. They managed to bring in some great young talent through the draft in Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Shabazz Muhammed after winning two straight lotteries. This year they were finally able to make a splash in free agency. Having over 34 million in cap to start free agency, they had a lot of room to work. They ended up spending every dollar of it on some key players and depth in Nikola Vucevic, aging star Paul Pierce, Joe Johnson, Elton Brand and their likely starting point guard Jose Calderon as well as Chris Quinn. With this infusion of talent, and some marked improvement from sophopmores Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, the Blazers expect to at least be in the playoffs this year. With a deep roster, who knows that can happen, but the Blazers have high hopes for the season. Paul Pierce is very excited about the season, he was even caught Faith Hilling to celebrate his new team.
ESPN’s Steven A. Smith likes what the Trail Blazers are doing. In the first year under new management, they got rid of Kwame Brown, which is a huge plus in his book.
Then they got some young studs, and signed some vets on short deals to bridge the gap until the young guns can make a huge impact. And if the project with these vets fails, they will be expiring soon and shouldn't be difficult to trade to add to the youth movement and start over in the coming free agencies.
It'll be an exciting years, at least letting me back into the trading game. Go Blazers!


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