Blazers Given Surprising Landing Spot on NBA Franchise Valuation List

The Portland Trail Blazers have had some weird whiplash during their 2024-25 season thus far.

After a dismal start en route to an expected fourth consecutive lottery finish, the club put together some surprisingly adept, defense-first basketball, leaning on a variety of lengthy, athletic frontcourt players to help it string together 10 wins in 11 games between January and February. The team looked just competent enough that it apparently convinced general manager Joe Cronin not to try to offload any of his veteran players for draft equity at this year's February 6 trade deadline.

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Now, however, the Trail Blazers' fortunes appear to have shifted for the worse anyway. Portland has dropped its last three straight and fallen to a lackluster 23-32 record on the year, putting the team a whopping five games behind the 28-27 Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors, the Western Conference's Nos. 9 and 10 seeds.

The Trail Blazers seem unlikely to rally back into play-in tournament contention soon, as they'll be without starting center Deandre Ayton at least for the next four weeks, while he deals with a left calf strain. That should effectively kill Portland's postseason chances.

Rookie center Donovan Clingan has impressed defensively in Ayton's absence, but his offensive game still has a ways to go.

Recently, the team's fanbase was dealt some more disappointing news. It turns out Portland is one of the least valuable franchises in the league.

Michael Ozanian of CNBC writes, with a projected $3.65 billion valuation (as owned by the Paul G. Allen Trust), Portland is currently ranked 22nd among the league's 30 teams in terms of value.

That slot sandwiches the club between the San Antonio Spurs (who've been valued at $3.7 billion) and Orlando Magic ($3.55 billion). The Golden State Warriors, owned by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, lead the crop with an estimated $9.4 billion valuation, $1.9 billion ahead of the second-place New York Knicks ($7.5 billion) and $2.4 billion ahead of the third-place Los Angeles Lakers ($7 billion).

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"It may not be surprising that the value of the Warriors has increased at a 24% compound annual growth rate since Joe Lacob and Peter Guber paid $450 million for the team in 2010," Ozanian writes of Golden State. "After all, the Warriors have won four NBA titles over the past decade, moved into their state-of-the-art arena in 2019 and have been led by two-time league MVP Stephen Curry."

Still, a rising tide lifts all ships. The league's overall value has ballooned over the recent decades, thanks to increasingly heftier broadcast rights deals. Portland is worth far more than it was when late owner Paul Allen (whose estate still controls the franchise) initially purchased his majority stake of the team, for just $70 million, in 1988.

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