With the Trail Blazers beginning their 2017-18 regular season on Wednesday versus the Suns in Phoenix (tipoff scheduled for 7 pm on NBC Sports Northwest and Rip City Radio 620 AM), let's take a look around the internet at the first crop of NBA Power Rankings. With little more than offseason player movement and preseason games to base opinions on, the first few weeks of power rankings tend to look a whole lot like the last few weeks or rankings from the season prior. Given that, it's not surprising to see the Portland Trail Blazers show up around the middle of the league, roughly where they ended last season, in the first batch of rankings.
Here goes...
• After cutting Marc Stein loose earlier this year, ESPN now has a panel making their Power Rankings picks. That panel consisting of Kevin Arnovitz, Amin Elhassan and Ramona Shelburne, Marc J. Spears and Chris Herring, has the Trail Blazers starting the season at No. 14…
ESPN has the Trail Blazers behind the Bucks at No. 13 and ahead of the Pelicans at No. 15• John Schuhmann at NBA.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 13 in his season-opening power rankings…
Schuhmann has the Trail Blazers behind the Jazz at No. 12 and ahead of the Bucks at No. 14.• David Aldridge, also for NBA.com, only ranks the top half of the league, but Portland makes the cut, coming in at No. 13…
I’m not going to do much Power Rankings commentary this year, but this take makes absolutely no sense. They can match any contract on Nurkić, even from Mark Cuban, who also opted not to pay his restricted free agent center, Nerlens Noel, this offseason. Aldridge has the Trail Blazers behind the Grizzlies at No. 12 and ahead of the Timberwolves at No. 14. • Kenny Ducey at SI.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 14 in his initial rankings…
Ducey has the Trail Blazers ahead of the Pelicans at No. 15 and behind the Nuggets at N. 13.• Matt Moore at CBS Sports.com has the Trail Blazers at No. 17 in his first rankings of the season (posted September 26)…
What an arbitrary thing to point out. I’m guessing that’s not all that uncommon for teams in Portland’s stratum.Moore has the Trail Blazers behind the Heat at No. 16 and ahead of the Jazz at No 18. • Gerald Bourguet at Hoops Habit has the Trail Blazers at No. 12 to start the season…
Bourguet has the Trail Blazers behind the Clippers at No. 11 and ahead of the Heat at No. 13.• AJ Neuharth-Keusch at USA Today has the Trail Blazers at No. 15 in his first rankings of the regular season…
Neuharth-Keusch has the Trail Blazers behind the Heat at No. 13 and ahead of the Grizzlies at No. 16.