The Portland Trail Blazers will approach the 2026-27 NBA season with a fair amount of optimism. They returned to the NBA Playoffs last spring for the first time in five years. They added extra roster members over the summer, including former Memphis Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant. They’ll be ready to compete in the Western Conference come October.
The big question is, at what level?
Every team aspires to an NBA Championship. The usual way of looking at a team’s prospects is asking how high they can
climb, how well they compete with elite teams. The Blazers might not quite be there yet. The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Luck Bombs…errr…Spurs have the top two positions wrapped up as far as most experts can tell. Forecasting the Blazers challenging their supremacy would be near-delusional.
There’s another way to look at this, though. Ranking in the conference isn’t just based on how many teams are above you. It’s about how many teams you can put beneath. That’s the question we’re going to ask today.
Below is a list of Western Conference NBA teams in order of standing last season with records attached. Here’s what we want to know.
- Which teams are definitely going to finish below the Blazers? We’re not talking about sketchy projections and hopes here. Which teams qualify for, “I would bet my house that Portland finishes ahead of them handily.”
- Which teams are at or near Portland’s level, competing for the spots just above the franchises you just mentioned?
The list of teams in the West:
- Oklahoma City Thunder (64-18)
- San Antonio Spurs (62-20)
- Denver Nuggets (54-28)
- Los Angeles Lakers (53-29)
- Houston Rockets (52-30)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (49-33)
- Phoenix Suns (45-37)
- Portland Trail Blazers (42-40)
- Los Angeles Clippers (42-40)
- Golden State Warriors (37-45)
- New Orleans Pelicans (26-56)
- Dallas Mavericks (26-56)
- Memphis Grizzlies (25-57)
- Sacramento Kings (22-60)
- Utah Jazz (22-60)
Which teams are beneath Portland still and which will be at the Blazers’ level this year? Share your thoughts and reasoning in the comments section below!
