Exclusive Why I'm Excited about the 2025-26 season

It IS exciting, but it is also compelling. I can't remember so many story lines.

• Scoot trended way up in the last half of last season. Will he continue his upward trajectory, or fall back into Amen Thompson's shadow?
• Sharpe shot 2s with an extremely high percentage, but his 3% has been trending down. Can he reverse that? He and Lillard are the only non-plus defenders on the team. Can he improve from horrible to just bad? Bad's ok if you're an elite offensive player, but horrible is concerning. What will happen with Sharpe?
• Camara is elite. All NBA defensive in a 37.5% from 3 package. He doesn't really need to improve, but he's young and he's healthy this offseason, unlike the last. If he just continues his 37.5%, he'll be great. However, if he does improve his all around game, it'll be amazing. If he improves his 3 pointer I may need to check my pants.
• Deni. Also, just needs to continue to do what you did in the last half of last season. Will he? If he takes a step, all star isn't out of the realm of possible. I'm very interested in seeing what happens.
• DC is my favorite player on the team, and he's extremely underrated. He was only 1 of 2 players who finished top 6 in both rebounding percentage and block percentage. He's an elite screen setter, making him an excellent offensive player (there is only 1 ball). He dropped to #7 because he himself is terrible at actually putting the ball in the basket. Can he improve that? Can he improved his conditioning so that he can play 30 mpg? Can he stay healthy? Can he gain more experience, and have that propel him to 1/4 of a second faster response time? If he does, watch out! He has the tools to become better than Gobert, and in a few years, he just might. Watching him on the journey is very exciting.
• Thybulle was the opposite situation. He shot 43.8% from 3 last year in limited minutes. Can he possibly continue that? He's shown glimpses of elite 3%, but has never been able to maintain it. Can he this year? Can he stay healthy? Tune in!
• Kris Murray has become a plus defender, check. The anti-Nurk, he dunks the ball when he's close to the rim - no flipping! However, he was billed as a 3 point shooter, and he's been a 25.1% from 3 career shooter. At a minimum, he needs to shoot 36% from 3 this year, which is a LOOOONG way from 25%. No pressure, Kris, but if you can't make the jump this season, you're off the team. We've got lots of future picks that need roster spots. Carter-Bryant and Coward were right there for the taking this last draft. I think part of the Yang obsession is that they want to give Kris one more shot. Does he take advantage?
• My take is that last year wasn't a down year for Grant from a skills-deterioration pov, it was just extended sulking from having his role changed. Can Lillard pull him out of his doldrums? Can Joe get value for him? Will the coach have the balls to bring him off the bench? What will he play like next year? Things could go either way.
• Rob Will, sigh. Love him, but.... you can't depend on him. it's really heartbreaking. I'm trying to write him off, for reasons of mental health. Why? Because I KNOW that if he and Jure are healthy for the whole season, we're not just a playoff team, but we'll be contending for home court. But, it's just hard to see him being healthy.
• The Blazers will severely limit Rob Will's minutes in hopes to keep him healthy. That will open up minutes THIS season for Yang. He's a point center, and that's just fucking exciting. He has many things to work on, but most of those things are fixable, some even easily fixable. How fast can be get better? If he just improves his strength, conditioning, and english, it'll be a banner year for him and for Blazer fans.
• I'm rooting for Billups. However, if he doesn't start our top 5 youngins, I will openly and loudly boo him (through a tv screen, but hey). This Blazers team is a speedy racecar with a bad transmission. It's time for him to fix it. Will he?
• What will happen with the new ownership and how will that affect the basketball side? New priorities from the owner? New Arena? Blazers will very likely stay in PDX, but many of us won't breath a sigh of relief until it's actually done.

Our coach and all of our top 11 players have compelling storylines going into next season. Unlike like Ayton and Ant, who "are who they are", most all of the current Blazers can improve, some even vastly improve. Will they? and to what extent? The team is absolutely ready to take off. Having 4 top 9 lotto picks in the starting lineup is amazing (especially considering the 5th is Camara), and most unique in the history of the Blazers. Will they show their promise? "When they take off, we'll take off" said Billups. Well, it's go time. He's been preaching defense, defense, defense, but hasn't delivered on that front until the end of last season. Now, the GM has nearly eradicated all of the bad defenders from the team. Let's see if Billups can actually coach. What will our record end up as? Will we make the playin? The playoffs? Home court? DC made all rookie, Camara made all defense. Any other individual accolades coming?

And then there's Lillard. It's not obvious he'll ever be able to play again. OTOH, it's possible he returns to all-star form. Unlikely to happen for the vast majority of nba players with the same injury, but Lillard just has a different intensity and matureness about him. It'll be interesting to see how things develop for him.

Not only is this team intriguing, it's also very exciting:









So many more videos I could post, but I'll just finish with this:

 

I'm excited for the Blazers to be consistently elite in defense. (Better enjoy it this season before Dame comes back...)

My niche wish: Kris Murray turns himself into our backup 4. That would probably require the proverbial 15-20 lbs of muscle, but it's certainly an open spot on the team, and would separate him from Rupert who is definitely a wing.

Every member of the team better be shooting thousands of threes a day right now, though.

 

I love your enthusiasm! In my opinion, hope is the one thing that truly binds people to their teams. I’m excited for every season no matter what. There’s always a player to look forward to figuring out, growth to anticipate or a team that looks like it will contend. I can always find a silver lining or something to root for. This coming year definitely feels like an increasingly interesting one for the reasons you laid out so well.

 

I’m sure we will be the worst 3 point shooting team in the league (…..Better enjoy it before Dame comes back…)

 

OP put out some effort. Deserves the like!

 

11 teams made less 3 pointers than us per game last season.
4 teams had a worse 3 point FG% than us per game last season.
Have teams like the Wizards, Hornets, Magic, Raptors made moves this offseason to improve their 3 point shooting?
We won't be the worst.

 

How did Ant affect/effect our 3 point shooting? Did he hit a lot? Did we bring in somebody that will make up for him leaving?

 

I guess I could have just type….. have we?

 

His name is Damian Lillard...and actually Matisse Thybulle is our specialist now...he shot 43.8% from deep last season! We have a lot of guys who need to step up shooting...will help that Ant isn't ISO hogging the 4th qtr game after game playing catch up. Ant would give you 3 and give up 5 on the other end...Jrue is not going to do that. Scoot and Shae need to fill the scoring gap..

 

Ant was 6th on the team in 3P% but #1 in attempts, If Tou, Deni and Grant that had a higher 3P% than him take a bit of his attempts and the others go to Scoot (Who was only a little behind Ant in 3P%) and Jrue (even in a down-year, about the same as Scoot, a year before that, he was much much higher) - the Blazers will be about the same going forward.

Of course, if Shae just goes back to his rookie year from 3 (he was 2nd on the team in attempts), the Blazers will be more than fine.

 

FORUM MEMBERS - mark this day on your calendar - HCP has finally made a valid point!

Yeah, I didnt think about the impact of losing Simons.

 

That’s not what we are talking about sir. Also, this just in, Dame isn’t returning this season. I asked with the subtraction or Ant, does that make an already HORRIBLE 3 point shooting team MORE HORRIBLE!?!?
Keep up or please step aside son.

 

#Winning

 

Well typed out post……but I got stuck on…..”IF”.

 

Great post! My only differences: I really want to see Sharpe be a better than average defender; this team's identity is tough defense and if he can't do that, I'd be ready to move on.
I don't think Grant was sulking; hopefully he can snap back offensively although I think it should be as a three and D only, so I hope he won't start sulking.

 

after 10 years of starting either CJ or Simons, just the fact neither is on the team will spike my interest next season. The added bonus of Ayton being gone will spike it even further. I hated watching those guys

 

This is the NBA, every year there is an IF. Ant's 3P% has gone down every year since 2020 - and last year he was at NBA average - why are we upset about the loss of a guy that was average NBA level 3P shooter and took by far the most shots on the team?

Sure, the Blazers 3P averages might go down next year, but they could also go up - and let's face, devoting the majority of your 3P attempts to a payer that shot it at a league average level is not something anyone should bemoan losing, as nice as Ant is. He was miscast here, for better or worse - and I suspect it would have been hard for him to accept a role that is different on this team. Anyway, there is a lot to be excited about this team going forward, even if they might have a low 3P shooting year.

 

Since it appears we are no longer tanking but playing for a playoff spot, thats refreshing and could be exciting.

 

I’m excited. Should be fun. I knew it was only a matter of time that we got in “Chauncey type guys that would buy into his system. Just know that 3 point shooting is something I REALLY miss.