NBA: Ranking the 9 contenders with the best shot to win the 2019-20 title

9. Portland Trail Blazers

Everything for this Portland team begins with their starting backcourt; Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum. Each has already cemented themselves as star guards in the league and last year, they led the Blazers on a Conference Finals run.

For them to repeat or even surpass what they were able to do a year ago, they will need both Dame and C.J. to be at the top of their respective games.

I think McCollum still has another level to reach and for Portland to be able to challenge the other contenders in the western conference, I think he’s going to need to reach that level. Upping his scoring from low to mid-20s while competing for his first all-star game is more than doable for the soon-to-be seven-year guard.

For Lillard, it’s less about how much better he can be and more about if he can just go crazy for a season. While Dame is already a top-10 player in the NBA – and he proved that in last year’s playoffs – there is always the possibility that he comes into this upcoming season and just explodes, having his version of Steph Curry’s 2016 MVP-campaign.

Dame has talked about winning MVP before and if he can come out and put up over 30 a night for a contending Blazers squad, not only is that possible but it will also establish Portland as a team that nobody wants to face out West.

Moving down the roster, the Trail Blazers will also be getting Jusuf Nurkic back at some point. Before going down with that horrific leg injury, you could argue that Nurk was the team’s second-best player so if they can get him back to 100 percent, that will only bolster this their chances.

And to tide them over until the big-man does return, newly-acquired Hassan Whiteside will look to fill the void. If he can buy into his role, Whiteside can certainly help this team but it will be interesting to see how he and Nurk co-exist once they both share the court.

There’s also the problem of replacing both Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu, whom they lost in free agency this year. both guys were big parts of the Blazers’ success a year ago and it will take a collective effort to replace what they brought to the table.

As a solid two-way do-it-all wing, newbie Kent Bazemore will look to do his part filling that hole. There is also Rodney Hood who, after showing flashes in the playoffs will likely be relied upon for more offense this year.

On offense, these two alone should fill the void left by Harkless and Aminu but on defense well, that’s another issue.

For that, I think Portland will be relying a lot on the brilliance of head coach, Terry Stotts as well as the chemistry this core group of guys already has with one another.