The Portland Trail Blazers have a date with destiny in 2023. Unfortunately “destiny” means a losing record and a trip to the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery, their second straight year hoping for ping-pong ball luck. Starting the year with Jerami Grant and Josh Hart in tow, alongside starters Jusuf Nurkic, Anfernee Simons, and Damian Lillard, this wasn’t supposed to happen. The Blazers hoped to be fighting for the second or third best record in the Western Conference, not the fifth-worst record in the entire NBA...a mark that they’re defending by listing an entire roster’s worth of players on the injury report.