For the fourth consecutive week, The Portland Trail Blazers once again find themselves at No. 20 in NBA.com’s league-wide power rankings from John Schuhmann. This time, the injury-riddled Blazers stayed
put after a 1-3 week that included an impressive win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, close losses to the Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons, and a 23-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
As I mentioned during last week’s power rankings post, Portland’s continued stagnancy in the rankings is evidence of how the Blazers (9-15) have remained competitive this season, even as injuries and losses have mounted. But it’s also evidence of just how bad the bottom-third of the NBA has been this season, considering the Blazers have gone 4-12 over the last month.
While injuries have played their part in Portland’s slide, Schuhmann points out the Blazers have also had to trek through a tough schedule, although they haven’t always taken advantage of opportunities against supposedly weaker competition.
Only the Kings (17/23) have played a higher ratio of their games against teams that currently have winning records than the Blazers, who’ve played 17 of their 24 against those 17 teams above .500. But Portland is also just 3-4 against the other teams currently below .500 after a 23-point loss in Memphis on Sunday. Yang Hansen got his first career start (both Donovan Clingan and Robert Williams III were out), and they were down 20 after the first quarter.
On a more positive note, Blazers forward Deni Avdija is playing well and driving like a mad man at defenses. In another takeaway, Schuhmann notes Avdija is on pace to dethrone 2025 MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as the driving king of the NBA.
Deni Avdija (19.5) is in position to end Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s streak of five straight seasons as the league leader in drives per game. His 23.2 drives per 36 minutes are a jump from 12.7 per 36 last season, and his assist/turnover ratio on drives (1.84) is also the highest of his career. He’s passed on 51.4% of his drives, the fourth-highest rate among 44 players with at least 200 drives total.
The Athletic also released their Week 8 NBA power rankings on Monday, penned by Law Murray (subscription required). The Blazers came in at — surprise, surprise — No. 20 on the countdown.
Accompanying the rankings, Murray also gave quarter-season grades to every team. He was much less smitten by Portland’s hot-then-cold start to the season than the folks at CBS Sports, and it showed in his C- mark for the Blazers.
The Trail Blazers had a spark when this season started, but they have lost 75 percent of their games since Jrue Holiday began missing games. The defense started off with an emphasis on applying indiscriminatory pressure. But Portland fouls entirely too much, and that is a bigger issue than the effort to force turnovers has been a positive attribute.
The Blazers get some days off before finishing their five-game road trip against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday. Then they close out the week with a home matchup against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.
