The Portland Trail Blazers currently hold a 17-29 record, far from the worst in the league, but not great. They’ve been through plenty of ups and downs so far in the 2024-25 season with more sure to follow. Nobody knows what will happen after the NBA All-Star Break when the race for Cooper Flagg gets underway in earnest. Lottery odds may supersede the thirst for victories, sending Portland’s season over the edge. Or the Blazers may fight to the bitter end, trying hard to reach the low end of mediocre instead of remaining at the top side of lousy.

One thing’s bound to remain the same. A segment of Blazers fans will be cranky either way. In fact cranky seems to be the byword for the entire year, at least if this Blazer’s Edge Mailbag question is representative.

Dave,

I can’t believe the incompetence of this team. I’ve been a fan since the days of Clyde [Drexler] and Kiki [Vandeweghe] and I’ve never seen this kind of misery. Do you think this is the stupidest collection of owners and management ever or are they just ignorant or do they just not care anymore? Circle one please.

Amar

Tough choices there.

Let’s put this in perspective a little. I’m still going to maintain that watching Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson ride the roller coaster alongside a surprisingly-strong tandem of Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija is far nicer, emotionally speaking, than watching the Blazers crumble and then go belly-up with their questionable decision-making between 2001-2005. At least I wonder what’s going to happen each game instead of wondering when it’s going to be over, only to receive a Magic 8-Ball answer of “Reply Hazy, Ask Again Later”.

I also believe that management gets one more cycle through the draft and enough time next year to see how the growing team plays before we brand them as stupid or incompetent. I’m not dazzled, but I didn’t expect to be.

That’s the rub here. I don’t know what people were anticipating when the Blazers traded away Damian Lillard in 2023, but the word bandied around was “rebuild”. Rebuilds look a lot like this. They take time too. The Oklahoma City Thunder are on top of the world right now. A couple years ago they were winning in the 20’s. The Houston Rockets won 17, 20, and 22 between 2020 and 2023. They were hard to watch too. Ugh.

I don’t see the Blazers ascending like the Thunder did, at least not next season, but they’re probably going to trend upward over the next two. Life will be easier then. Until that day arrives, though, we’re going to see disjointed, up-and-down, and ultimately losing basketball because the team traded away all the players who could have propped them up artificially and are likely to trade away a couple more over the summer.

That’s why I’d rate this year as “meh” rather than blowing a gasket or calling for people’s heads. If they mess up the next draft I’ll be more worked up. If they don’t get a good coach with their next hire, that’ll be worth noticing. Right now they’re playing out the dregs of a bad hand. There’s nothing much to be done until those ping pong balls bounce in May.

But what about all of you? We can see the grumpiness and frustration with the franchise in the comment section of Game Day Threads, among other places. How widespread is it? What’s the temperature of your Blazers fandom right now? If 10 was a blazing inferno and 1 all but dead, where would you put yourself on the scale?

Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to help eager young fans who otherwise couldn’t see a game celebrate Portland’s tilt with the Cleveland Cavaliers in March! Here’s how you can donate a ticket or two, easy as pie!

Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer as many as we can!