Portland Trail Blazers
Biggest need: Two-way forward
Players to target: Saddiq Bey, Precious Achiuwa
Portland is another team, similar to the Warriors, that likely wouldn’t be in the lottery if it wasn’t for injuries. But even so, their roster has more question marks than answers right now. Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are pretty safe bets for reliable production, but I don’t see anyone else on this roster that inspires a lot of confidence.
Hassan Whiteside and Carmelo Anthony have well-known flaws and might not even be back in Portland next season. Jusuf Nurkic, Zach Collins, and Rodney Hood are all rehabbing serious injuries. Nassir Little and Anfernee Simons are young but neither has shown anything so far to get excited about. There are question marks up and down this roster once you get past their star backcourt.
With both Lillard and McCollum still in their prime, the Portland Trail Blazers shouldn’t be targeting projects in this class, they need players that have transferrable skills that have high likelihoods of sticking around in the NBA as role players.