Despite being generally bullish on the Blazers compared to most pundits, ESPN columnist Zach Lowe has ranked Portland’s favorite team among the also-rans in the race for the 2022 NBA Playoffs. In his annual column sorting all 30 NBA teams into tiers [subscription required], Lowe puts the Blazers among a group of five fighting for three middle-bracket seeds in the crowded Western Conference. He judges three of those more fit than Portland, leaving the Blazers scrambling into the play-in tournament.
Lowe’s Western Conference is compact this year. The Eastern Conference has two teams in their own tiers: the returning NBA Champion Milwaukee Bucks and the presumed more-elite-than-thou Brooklyn Nets.