2025 Portland Trailblazers Preseason Preview

Portland finished last season with a record of 21 wins and 61 loses. This was a very new look for the Trail Blazers as they said goodbye to their point guard of 10 years Damien Lillard and welcomed 3rd overall pick Scoot Henderson. After getting off to a slow start, Henderson showed improvements as last season progressed, and will begin this season looking for to achieve a higher level of both individual and team consistency.

(AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Joining the second year point guard in the search for consistency will be the relative veterans of this young Trailblazers team, DeAndre Ayton and Anfernee Simmons. The players entering their 6th year played 55 and 46 games respectively last year and will be joined by Robert Williams as the players with the longest NBA tenure on this seasons iteration of the Trailblazers roster, with the exception of 11th year power forward Jeremi Grant.

Portland will spend this season focused on maintaining their health and building chemistry and this young roster has time to grow together as baring any trades, this will be Portlands roster for the next two seasons at least. The questions for Portland will began a bit earlier, however. Ayton and Simmons will both be extension eligible after this season and lacking any action become unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2025-26. Portland will need to evaluate this year what their roster construction will look like long term, as their additional young prospects Shaedon Sharpe and Jabari Walker fit a timeline with Henderson.

Regardless of what happens in Portland in the near future the Lillard hang over will likely last a few more years. The future is bright though, in addition to a slate of intriguing young prospects, Portland controls Milwakees’s first round draft picks in 2028, 2029, and 2030 as well as Boston’s in 2029 and could greatly benefit from a changing of the guard in the Eastern conference.