Starting fresh is always hard, especially in professional sports. However, every so often it has to be attempted. With the Portland Trail Blazers spiraling downward with a record of 49-33 (losses-wins), in the 2022-23 season, something had to be changed.
In the 2023 NBA draft, the Blazers landed the number three pick. They chose a point guard named Scoot Henderson. Damian Lillard, the team’s biggest star, filled the same position. The addition of Henderson allowed Lillard to take a trade he had been wanting for a while. He wants to win a championship before he retires, and it didn’t seem like the Blazers were going to be able to get one before then. Lillard wanted to go to Miami, but because they had nothing good to offer the Blazers he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks instead, who won the 2021 NBA championship. In Milwaukee, he is joining two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
In return for Lillard, Portland received many players from many teams. These include Deandre Ayton from the Phoenix Suns, Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams III both from the Boston Celtics.
The Blazers season started off rough, losing their first three games before winning three games in a row. After that, they had a drought of victory where they lost eight games in a row, before finally toppling the Utah Jazz. From there it has been a bit more of a mixed bag, with more losing than winning but no awful losing streaks. The Blazers’ most impressive victory to date was over the third in the East Milwaukee Bucks, upsetting Lillard’s homecoming. Their most humiliating loss was by over 60 points to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the largest loss of the season by any NBA team.
This far in the season the Blazers are ranked 14th in the West; second to worst above the San Antonio Spurs. This can mostly be excused though as the Blazers are a team made of young and newly drafted players. The Trail Blazers’ average age is 24.786, the fourth youngest in the league. They have a trio of exciting young talents in Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, and the rookie, Henderson, who are 24, 20, and 19 respectively.
Both Simons and Sharpe are having career-high seasons, with Simons averaging over 20 points a game, in the games he plays in. Henderson has shown his playmaking abilities at the start of this season, getting double-digit assists in multiple games, with some truly amazing passes, as well as reaching over 20 points in multiple games. However, he still has a lot of work to do. His efficiency is terrible with an under-40 field goal percentage, and turnovers are a big problem. These can be excused as being a rookie teenage point guard in the NBA is incredibly hard. Many star point guards such as De’Aaron Fox and Darius Garland had similarly rough rookie seasons.
Moving on from Lillard will be challenging, as will developing Henderson into a star. So far things look pretty bleak for the Blazers, and it seems like the playoffs aren’t in their future. However, as with all developing teams they are looking at the long run. Even though they currently have a record of 37-15 (losses-wins), the second worst in the Western conference, with the amount of young talent on their team, there is hope for the Blazers. As Chase Berkaw, a Blazers fan at Ida. B. Wells High School says, “The potential of our young players Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe, Jabari Walker, and Duop Reath,” is the most exciting part of the current Blazers.
