Sir Charles in Charge
Fansided

NBA Mock Draft: 4 Teams that will likely embrace tanking during 2023-24 season

By Michael Saenz

Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy (Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports)
Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy (Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 5
Next
Scoot Henderson
Scoot Henderson (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

Portland Trail Blazers

Even though the Portland Trail Blazers have not come to a resolution with Damian Lillard, the overwhelming belief is that he will eventually be traded. And there’s at least an outside chance that it happens before the start of the season. But even if the Blazers take Lillard into the season, it would be extremely unlikely to see him play much. He’ll eventually be traded and once that distraction is gone, the Blazers will be able to fully embrace the new youth movement.

Portland is young and exciting. It’s been a long time that has been said about the Blazers without Lillard. Nevertheless, it’s a new era for this franchise. And they’re going to embrace it this season by giving a ton of minutes to their young players and by embracing the tank. While the Blazers are talented, they’re not in a position where they’re going to compete in the West just yet.

The plan for the Blazers is clear for this season; they’re going to try to develop their young backcourt and that will likely result in losing games. Portland won’t be proactively tanking but it will be the result of their first steps in this rebuild.