he fully expects several injured players to play again this season and that shutting down players is not in the team’s plansI think we have so much growth and development that needs to happen,” Billups said. “Obviously, we know we’re not going to the playoffs. But these dudes need to get better. They need to get to know each other while paying. The only way you get better at basketball is playing basketball.
Billups added that the plan is for veterans, Jerami Grant (hamstring) and Malcolm Brogdon (elbow) to play again this season. Maybe even Shaedon Sharpe, who underwent abdominal surgery in February. He has been assigned to the Rip City Remix for conditioninBringing key players back this late in the season would be a departure from how thefranchise operated near the end of the last two seasons when the Blazers blatantly sat key players in order to accumulate as many losses as possible.
More losses means a better shot at landing a high draft pick through the league’s lottery process. However, stacking losses this time around could result in the Blazers producing one of the four worst seasons in the franchise’s 54-season existence
The Blazers are speeding heir way toward one of the franchise’s worst two seasons since “The Brady Bunch” sitcom aired in all of its bell-bottom and tie-dye glory during the early
The Blazers hit the 60-loss mark just three times in its prior 53 seasons. The first came during the Blazers’ second season of existence, 1971-72, when they went 18-64. The Blazers then went 21-61 the next season, a lowlight they matched during the 2005-06 season.
To avoid the fourth sch season could require having nearly all hands on deck for the remainder of the season. Saturday night’s loss to the Denver Nuggets left the Blazers at 19-52 with 11 games left.
The Blazers must go at worst 4-7 the rest of the way to finish at 23-59, which would still be the fourth-worst season in franchise history. In fact, the Blazers have never had a season that ended in the 56-to-59-loss rangeWinning four games, even with the return of several key players, would still be a challenge.
Portland, losers of six games in a row and 10 of its last 12, starts a seven-game trip Monday at the Houston Rockets (35-35). Eight of the Blazers’ final 11 games come on t
