2019-2020 NBA Betting Preview: Can the Trailblazers Repeat Last Year’s Postseason Success?

2019-2020 NBA Betting Preview: Can the Trailblazers Repeat Last Year’s Postseason Success? Leading up to the start of the season, we'll be looking at a bunch of different teams, breaking down their offseasons, and looking ahead how they project relative to their Vegas implied win total. We already covered the New York Knicks and how we liked the over on their wins. We also covered the Brooklyn Nets and their prospects this season. Now, we'll take a closer look at the Portland Trailblazers and how they look heading into the season. Now’s your chance to get DFSR PRO, which will give you access to our NFL, NBA and MLB optimizers and our new player lab! Get started for free by clicking the button below. START YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW! Portland Trailblazers 2018-2019 Record 52-29 2018-2019 Point Differential +4.2 Offseason Additions Hassan Whiteside Kent Bazemore Mario Hezonja Skal Labasierre Anthony Tolliver Offseason Losses Jusuf Nurkic (recovering from injury) Al-Farouq Aminu Maurice Harkless Evan Turner Jake Layman Projected Starting Lineup Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Kent Bazemore, Zach Collins, Hassan Whiteside Key Bench Players Rodney Hood, Anfernee Simons, Mario Hezonja Portland is coming off a somewhat improbable playoff run last season, getting to the Western Conference Finals after a walk-off dagger and wave by Damian Lillard in Game 5 of the Thunder series and a grind-it-out seven-game grudge match with the Nuggets in the Western Conference Semifinals. They were summarily dispatched by the Warriors in a sweep, but it still ranked as a significant accomplishment for this Portland team to make it that far. It was coming off an excellent regular season, finishing 52-29 and third in the Western Conference behind the Rockets and Warriors. All in all, last season was akin to an NBA championship run considering they were still rolling against a mostly-full Warriors’ team. They enter 2019-2020 with some of the same parts, but also major questions about how new additions and key losses will affect their prospects. The engine is, of course, Damian Lillard who finished the season 4th overall in Win Shares according to Basketball Reference with the 3rd-best Offensive Box +/- behind only James Harden and Stephen Curry. In many ways, this team’s success is born out of Lillard’s season-over-season consistency, durability and offensive game that is both explosive and cerebral. There are no concerns around Lillard and what he can contribute on a nightly basis. It’s the rest of the pieces that have me a bit worried. The biggest difference between this year’s Blazers and last year’s is the loss of Jusuf Nurkic. He suffered a horrible leg injury late in the season and his timetable to return this year is muddy at best. He...