The Portland Trail Blazers closed out preseason with a loss to the Golden State Warriors in a game with as many negative takeaways as positive ones. After wins over the Warriors, Kings, and London Lions, a 3-1 preseason record could be considered quite impressive for rookie head coach Micah Nori.
But the win-loss column in preseason is trivial. The true importance lies in the trial and error of different lineups and systems to figure out what works and where there is still room for improvement.
After all, of the four preseason matchups Portland played, its only game against a fully healthy NBA opponent resulted in a loss.
Is that a legitimate warning sign for the challenging regular season ahead, or simply an overreaction to 48 minutes of an exhibition game that will be forgotten by next weekend?
We’ll soon find out. But in the meantime, let’s discuss whether the Blazers are fully prepared for the season ahead.
A Difficult Regular Season Awaits
I wouldn’t call myself an expert in the space of creating an NBA schedule, but it also doesn’t take a master’s degree in scheduling to understand just how difficult the start of the 2026-27 season will be for the Portland Trail Blazers.
The first 17 games of the Blazers’ schedule include:
12 games against opponents who made the playoffs last season.
12 games on the road, with a streak as long as 6 straight.
And 3 of those 5 home games?
Against not one, but both of the reigning Western Conference Finalists.
It's safe to say the Blazers have a hill to climb to start the season and need every second of training camp to fully prepare. Challenging themselves on the practice court and against other teams is the best way to achieve that.
Now, the number of games played is not a direct red flag for Portland. Of the other 29 teams preparing for the most difficult NBA season to date, 13 also scheduled only 4 tune-up games.
Yet when you take into account the significance of integrating a new head coach’s style, as well as a new backcourt of Ja Morant and Damian Lillard, it is up for debate whether only 4 games would be enough to run a complete diagnostic on the team.
In the first leg against Golden State, the Warriors left 9 rotation players at home in California. The London Lions roster possessed only one player with any NBA experience. Sacramento followed the Warriors theme, with 8 of their rotation players on the sidelines in street clothes.
A chance to test themselves against the likes of Stephen Curry and Domantas Sabonis, yet three games into preseason and the Blazers have only seen two-way talents and end-of-the-bench players.
Finally, Golden State rolled out its entire rotation in the last game of preseason and came out on top against Portland, a game the Warriors controlled from start to finish.
Besides an early first-quarter lead, the Blazers found themselves behind for the remainder of the game, with the deficit growing as large as 25 points.
There will logically be cause for concern when Portland falls to its first reasonable test. And when you look at the regular-season schedule, that concern grows.
Two Things Can Be True at Once
The importance of training camp is for the Blazers to prepare themselves in a manner that is consistent regardless of the opponent in front of them, and I truly believe Micah Nori has implemented many of the concepts and principles that will be foundational to this team.
However, the execution and performance of these same concepts, as well as the players on the roster, look very different against G League-talented opponents than they will against the rosters the Blazers will face in the difficult opening stretch of the season.
Hopefully the players and coaching staff take the loss to Golden State as a wake-up call and fix the problems before they actually count.
We will see if they can successfully do that when the Phoenix Suns come to town to open the regular season.
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