#CrystalBasketball: Ranking the Portland Trail Blazers for 2021-22

How does every NBA player stack up heading into 2021-22, 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 2021-22 is factored in, assuming health for those currently healthy and full recoveries from those presently injured (so long as they aren’t already ruled out for the season).

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:

  1. Shouldn’t Get Minutes
  2. End-of-Bench Pieces
  3. Depth Pieces
  4. High-End Backups
  5. Low-End Starters
  6. Solid Starters
  7. High-End Starters, Non-All-Stars
  8. All-Star Candidates
  9. All-NBA Candidates, Non-MVP Candidates
  10. Lesser MVP Candidates
  11. MVP Frontrunners
  12. 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 2021-22 campaign. Roster designations are up to date through Oct. 10 for this preseason edition, so plenty of training camp and preseason roster members who aren’t expected to make the regular-season roster will still be graded.

Today’s featured squad? The Portland Trail Blazers.

Shouldn’t Get Minutes: 1.00 to 1.49

19. Keljin Blevins: 1.25 (0.08 down)

18. Trendon Watford: 1.29 (not previously graded)

End-of-Bench Pieces: 1.50 to 2.49

T16. CJ Elleby: 1.88 (0.42 up)

T16. Greg Brown: 1.88 (not previously graded)

15. Quinn Cook: 2.0 (no change)

14. Dennis Smith Jr.: 2.11 (0.35 down)

13. Marquese Chriss: 2.29 (0.33 down)

12. Patrick Patterson: 2.44 (0.06 up)

Depth Pieces: 2.50 to 3.49

11. Ben McLemore: 3.0 (0.23 down)

10. Nassir Little: 3.11 (0.8 up)

9. Tony Snell: 3.33 (0.13 down)

High-End Backups: 3.50 to 4.49

8. Anfernee Simons: 3.56 (0.13 up)

7. Cody Zeller: 3.89 (0.19 down)

Low-End Starters: 4.50 to 5.49

None

Solid Starters: 5.50 to 6.49

6. Robert Covington: 5.78 (0.16 up)

5. Larry Nance Jr.: 5.89 (0.43 up)

4. Jusuf Nurkic: 6.0 (0.08 down)

3. Norman Powell: 6.22 (0.3 up)

High-End Starters: 6.50 to 7.49

2. CJ McCollum: 7.44 (0.02 down)

All-Star Candidates: 7.50 to 8.49

None

All-NBA Candidates: 8.50 to 9.49

None

Lesser MVP Candidates: 9.50 to 10.49

  1. Damian Lillard: 10.0 (0.31 down)

MVP Frontrunners: 10.50 to 12.00

None

Many thanks to Joey Akeley, Tara Biggs, Tony East, Dan Favale, Adam Fromal, Jordan McGillis, Tom Rende, Eric Sypropoulos and Bryan Toporek for their grading contributions.