The Trail Blazers’ early exit from the 2021 NBA Playoffs set off a sequence changes that featured a re-tooling for their bench, a new head coach, and a flurry of speculation tied to Damian Lillard’s happiness with the organization. In the aftermath of those changes, Lillard took to Instagram earlier this month to declare that he is “back for more” with the Blazers.
Regardless of Lillard’s late-summer comments, ESPN’s panel of NBA experts predicted that the Blazers are still favorites to encounter drama in the 2021-22 season. On the subject of team turmoil, the Blazers received 10 percent of the first-place votes from ESPN’s panel.