NBA general managers may not be handing the Trail Blazers a Finals ticket, but they do see a team with some real pieces worth respecting.
That came through loud and clear in NBA.com’s annual GM survey, released Thursday morning. The survey checks in with all 30 general managers each year, asking 48 questions about the league’s top players, coaches, teams, offseason moves and more. And when the Blazers showed up in the answers, they showed up as a club with talent, but not much consensus around where it’s headed.
Portland was one of the teams GMs had circling as tough to pin down. The Blazers received 7% of the vote in the category asking which team’s level of success is hardest to predict, tying the Indiana Pacers for fifth. The Philadelphia 76ers were the runaway leader there with 27%.
At the same time, the bigger-picture expectation from the league’s decision-makers is pretty modest. When GMs were asked who they thought would win the NBA Finals, the Western Conference favorites settled on the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Portland, by comparison, picked up enough fourth-place votes to project the Blazers to finish seventh in the conference.
Still, the survey wasn’t short on respect for individual Blazers.
Damian Lillard drew votes as the league’s best leader, and he also appeared on ballots for the shot GMs would want taken with the game on the line. That’s the kind of recognition that says a lot about how the rest of the league views him in pressure moments.
Toumani Camara got nods for being one of the NBA’s most versatile defenders, a reflection of how disruptive he can be on that end. Jrue Holiday also popped up in the survey, earning votes as one of the league’s best future coaches after his playing career. And Ja Morant, while not a Blazer, was one of the names drawing attention too, receiving votes for the player most likely to have a breakout season and being ranked the NBA’s third-fastest player with the ball in his hands.
Taken together, the survey paints Portland as a team with real strengths and just enough uncertainty to keep people guessing. The league clearly sees leadership, defense and late-game shot-making in the Blazers’ mix. What it doesn’t seem ready to do is put a clean label on what that adds up to.
In Other News...
Scoot Henderson Is Forcing A Blazers Decision Faster Than Expected
Scoot Henderson has made the early portion of camp feel a little more urgent than the Trail Blazers probably wanted. Through preseason games and practices, the second-year guard has looked sharper, more confident and more in control, giving Portland a reason to think his development may be arriving faster than expected. That matters because the Blazers are trying to sort out a guard rotation that also includes Damian Lillard and Jrue Holiday, two established veterans who naturally complicate the path forward.
The bigger pressure point is contractual, with Henderson set to become a restricted free agent after the season unless Portland reaches a rookie-scale extension with him before October 19. So while the on-court growth is encouraging, it also forces the front office to weigh how much responsibility to put on Henderson right now and how strongly to commit to him in the near term. The play has been good enough to sharpen the conversation, and the next few weeks may say a lot about how the Blazers want to handle it. [Read more 🡒]
Blazers Give Caleb Houstan One More Chance To Reenter The Picture
The Trail Blazers have added another familiar name to their preseason mix, signing Caleb Houstan to an Exhibit 10 contract that keeps his G League rights in Portlands system and positions him for time with the Rip City Remix. For a player who has already spent time with the Magic and Hawks and was most recently waived by the Pelicans, it is another chance to stay in the conversation and give the Blazers a closer look before the regular season arrives.
Houstan, a former second-round pick by Orlando, now gets a final preseason window to make his case in Portland. He can debut for the Blazers in their last exhibition game, which makes this less about a long-term guarantee than an opening to show enough to matter when the team sorts out its next steps between the NBA roster and the G League. [Read more 🡒]