Grantland's preview

[BrianFromWA]

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8478267/who-nba-top-title-contenders-season-trailing-pack

You can see the vision here: LaMarcus Aldridge as the top-20 overall centerpiece, with Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews working the wing and Damian Lillard orchestrating. In the big picture, it's unclear if the talent mix and the developmental timing will work well enough to keep Aldridge happy over the last three years of his deal. Batum or Lillard will have to make a leap, and fast, for that to happen, since Matthews — a solid player — appears to have hit something of a developmental ceiling.

Every player beyond those four is either totally unproven as an NBA commodity, or proven as a bad one. Portland will have to turn down options on just about all of their young guys to have meaningful cap room in either of the next two summers, so it's unclear how they'll find impactful help.

Aside from using ShamSports' numbers that don't show Jeffries or Pavlovic on non-guaranteed contracts, the assumption that Olshey wouldn't jettison Elliot, Nolan or Babbitt for a max-level cap player seems a bit ridiculous to me.