AOL.com's Preseason NBA Power Rankings: 29. Portland Trail Blazers
Poor Damian Lillard.
Every weekday leading up to NBA tipoff, we'll be rolling out our preseason power rankings for the coming season. Yesterday, we opened up with No. 30 -- you guessed it, the Philadelphia 76ers.
At second-to-last, we have a team unfamiliar with the bottom of the league's standings over recent years. After losing four of five starters from last year, the Portland Trail Blazers come in at No. 29.
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It's been a disappointing summer for the organization as a whole, but particularly for Damian Lillard. The All-Star point guard, who just turned 25 this summer, is suddenly the lone starter left from the playoff team of the last two seasons. With LaMarcus Aldridge now a Spur, Robin Lopez a Knick, Wesley Johnson a Maverick and Nicolas Batum a Hornet, the Blazers were forced to refresh on extremely short notice -- and had a rough go of it.
One of the more questionable moves of the offseason came shortly after it started, when Portland inked Al Farouq-Aminu to an eyebrow-raising $30 million deal. He'll slide in as the starting small forward, joining a frontcourt with Meyers Leonard and former Brooklyn Net Mason Plumlee.
Gerald Henderson will be manning the other guard, while C.J. McCollum and Moe Harkless figure to receive big minutes under Terry Stotts. Ed Davis and Noah Vonleh are two intriguing options as big men, but neither have been relied on heavily in their careers -- Vonleh played just 25 games last year for the Hornets.
It should be a long year in Portland after a couple of surprisingly fun campaigns under Stotts. The bright side: With several contracts coming off the books next summer, they should be able to reboot and build around Lillard fairly quickly.
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