#CrystalBasketball: Ranking the Portland Trail Blazers for 2019-20

How does every NBA player stack up heading into 2019-20, based solely on the level at which we expect them to play during the upcoming season?

That’s the question NBA Math staff members and a select group of site friends are seeking to address, ranking each and every player in the sport’s premier league on a 1-to-12 scale and then seeing who emerged with the highest averages. The distant past was irrelevant. Long-term potential doesn’t matter. Only what could come to pass in 2019-20 is factored in, assuming health for those currently healthy and full recoveries from those presently injured. For example, Kevin Durant will still be included in this analysis; we just assumed he’d already completed his rehab for the ruptured Achilles and now has that as a prior portion of his overall injury history.

All players were graded on the following scale by each evaluator, and ties between players with identical averages were broken by sorting the scores from best to worst and propping up the men who had the highest mark at any point in the top-down progression:

Shouldn’t Get Minutes
End-of-Bench Pieces
Depth Pieces
High-End Backups
Low-End Starters
Solid Starters
High-End Starters, Non-All-Stars
All-Star Candidates
All-NBA Candidates, Non-MVP Candidates
Lesser MVP Candidates
MVP Frontrunners
Best Player in the League (only one player could earn this grade on each ballot)

Journey with us team by team as we unveil the entirety of these rankings, culminating in a look at every player set to suit up for the 2019-20 campaign.

Today’s featured squad? The Portland Trail Blazers.

Shouldn’t Get Minutes: 1.00 to 1.49

18. London Perrantes, 1.07 (Not graded after 2018-19)

17. Jaylen Hoard, 1.14 (Not graded after 2018-19)

16. Troy Caupain, 1.2 (0.16 down)

15. Moses Brown, 1.21 (Not graded after 2018-19)

End-of-Bench Pieces: 1.50 to 2.49

14. Gary Trent, 2.07 (0.57 up)

13. Nassir Little, 2.47 (Not graded after 2018-19)

Depth Pieces: 2.50 to 3.49

12. Skal Labissiere, 2.53 (0.2 up)

11. Pau Gasol, 2.8 (0.3 up)

10. Anfernee Simons, 3.07 (0.99 up)

9. Mario Hezonja, 3.13 (0.21 up)

8. Anthony Tolliver, 3.27 (0.23 down)

High-End Backups: 3.50 to 4.49

7. Kent Bazemore, 4.13 (0.29 down)

6. Rodney Hood, 4.27 (0.44 up)

Low-End Starters: 4.50 to 5.49

5. Zach Collins, 4.73 (0.4 up)

4. Hassan Whiteside, 5.0 (0.17 down)

Solid Starters: 5.50 to 6.49

None

High-End Starters: 6.50 to 7.49

3. Jusuf Nurkic, 6.8 (0.28 down)

All-Star Candidates: 7.50 to 8.49

2. CJ McCollum, 7.67 (0.17 up)

All-NBA Candidates: 8.50 to 9.49

None

Lesser MVP Candidates: 9.50 to 10.49

Damian Lillard, 9.93 (0.07 up)

MVP Frontrunners: 10.50 to 12.00

None

Many thanks to Adam Fromal, Adam Spinella, Andy Bailey, Arjun Baradwaj, Ben Leibowitz, Dan Favale, Eris Spyropoulos, Jacob Bourne, Jordan McGillis, Josh Eberley, Matt Way, Mo Dakhil, Rory Bresail, Ryan Blackburn and Tom Rende for their grading contributions.