Frugal signings, a slick sales pitch from Neil Olshey and a modest forecast from ESPN’s RPM projections. Those have become the three offseason constants for the Trail Blazers. This year’s outlook from ESPN’s RPM (real plus-minus) projection has predicted, once again, that Portland is poised to battle for the final postseason spot in the Western Conference.
Before getting into the results, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton explained how the RPM projections work.
Our real plus-minus (RPM) projections utilize the multiyear, predictive version of RPM as a starting point. They’re adjusted for typical player aging and then regressed toward the player’s projected offensive rating and defensive rating from my SCHOENE projection system, based solely on box score stats.