USA Today Preseason Power Rankings (Blazers #26)

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Pretty much the way I see it.
They got the right 10 teams (give or take 1) in the top 10. They got the right 10 teams in the bottom 10 (give or take 1). That leaves the other 10 teams somewhere in the middle.
Sliding any team a couple notches up or down doesn’t change much other than if you are talking the top 5.
 
There is no way all of the teams listed 16 to 25 will finish ahead of the Blazers. I expect we'll finish higher than about half of them. It's either hate, stupidity, or trolling.
Do you think us playing in the west would be a reason for us finishing below some of the teams ranked higher than us?
 
Western vs Eastern conference records over the last few decades:

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https://www.basketball-reference.com/friv/east_vs_west.html


so then, over the last 26 years, since 1999-00 season, the Western Conference has had the better head-to-head record 23 of 26 times. It's almost like the imbalance is so baked into the equation it doesn't matter
The playoffs being easy vs west actually helps the west stay on top.

West and East each get exactly 7 lottery picks every year regardless of the East having more than 7 lottery quality teams.

If it was straight 16 team playoffs you might had had years with 11 lottery picks headed East.

Also easier to rack up losses in the west for those top picks.
 
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