I just looked...7 of the top-9 players in their rotation are shooting over 40% on three's; that's right, 7 of 9. And of those 7, five are shooting over 42%, and 3 of those are shooting over 43%.....yeeeeeesh! They lead the NBA in 3pt% and are 5th in 2pt%. Also, #1 in FT%. And, 1st in blocks; 4th in steals + 1st in opponent turnovers; 4th in their own turnovers. 5th in offensive rating while 6th in defensive rating. And they've done all that while have the 6th most difficult strength of schedule (Portland is 28th...lol)....yeeeeeesh squared
now, I seriously doubt all that is sustainable. But they have definitely climbed the ladder into darkhorse contender status. They have done well on their lottery picks: Holmgren 2nd pick; Giddey 6th; Jalen Williams 12th; jury in deliberation about Cason Wallace, 10th pick last season; but they traded the rights to Dereck Lively to get Wallace and I'd say the big man combo of Holmgren and Lively would have made OKC a true contender on the rise
the good news for Portland is that they will almost certainly have lots of chances in the lottery over the next few years so the Blazers might have a shot at matching OKC's success in the draft, just as long as the Blazers abandon their fetish for undersized guards...fingers crossed on that. The bad news is that their opportunities of trading for a player like SGA seem gone. They'll have to grow their own superstar and that ain't easy. It was 28 years between Portland landing Drexler and Portland adding Dame. 28 years....yikes!