Blazers Season Grades: Evaluating Portland’s Campaign After Hard-Fought Playoff Loss to Spurs

This Trail Blazers season has resembled a see-saw in many ways, but it is finally over. With Portland’s 114–95 loss to the No. 2 seed Spurs on Tuesday night in Game 5 of their first round Western Conference playoff clash, the Blazers have been eliminated from championship contention. A disappointing end, to be sure, but one many within the organization probably would have been thrilled about six months ago.

The season began with the stunning news that coach Chauncey Billups was being charged by the federal government for his role in a mob-linked gambling investigation, one game into the 2025–26 season. His arrest left Portland without its coach and leader for the past four years; such a turn of events could have (understandably) derailed the entire season.

But Tiago Splitter, named the interim coach after the Billups news, proved more than capable of keeping the train on the tracks. The former NBA center guided the Blazers through the off-court controversy that lingered to begin the year, the franchise changing hands at the ownership level and a variety of injuries to the roster’s young talent. The end result, given all those factors, was a big success—a 42–40 record and an upset win in the play-in tournament to qualify as the No. 7 seed in the West, the organization’s first playoff appearance since 2021.

On top of all that, Deni Avdija made his first All-Star team as one of the league’s breakout players this season. Scoot Henderson played out of his mind for much of the postseason, giving genuine reason to believe he can avoid bust status. Toumani Camara continued to solidify his place as an elite wing defender, with his offensive game continuing to come along.

There’s a lot to be excited about, even if Tom Dundon hasn’t inspired much confidence with his early moves as the new owner.

Regular season: B+

Deni Avdij — Avdija’s growth was a big story of the Blazers’ regular season. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

Portland got off to a somewhat rocky start to kick off this campaign, which lines up given the Billups situation. The Blazers lingered in the back half of the conference standings and stayed there through the All-Star break before riding a wave of wins in March to pass the Warriors and battle with the Clippers for the No. 8 seed. In the final days of the season they managed to hold off Los Angeles for that eight seed, setting up a win-and-in situation for the play-in.

The biggest development of the regular season was the leap taken by Avdija. He took a huge year-over-year jump as a scorer, averaging 24.2 points per game after averaging 16.9 last year. His assists nearly doubled as well. The sixth-year forward enjoyed explosive growth as an offensive hub and became one of the NBA’s premiere foul-drawers, taking 9.2 attempts per game from the charity stripe. While his reliance on free throws can lead to some wacky games, Avdija is only 25 years old and has proven he can operate as a No. 1 option in the NBA.

The roster around him got great veteran production from Jrue Holiday and Robert Williams III. Camara is likely to make a second consecutive All-Defense team and shot 37% from deep on a career-high 7.5 attempts per game. Donovan Clingan showed glimpses of an intriguing stretch center skillset, which could be enormously valuable if he continues to progress as a rim protector. Shaedon Sharpe broke the 20-ppg mark.

That’s all the good stuff. On the less-positive front, Henderson missed over 50 games and his play was awfully inconsistent when he did manage to get out on the court. Jerami Grant is incredibly overpaid to be a sixth man who averages 18 points per game. Kris Murray failed to take a step forward and Sharpe’s all-around game didn’t progress the way the team hoped it would, even if his scoring numbers improved. And despite the hype around him on draft night, Yang Hansen proved nothing more than an garbage time player as a rookie. Portland passed on players who could have proved helpful during this playoff run such as Cedric Coward, Derik Queen and Carter Bryant to land him.

Those negatives are notable and will have long-term ripple effects on the direction of the franchise. But Portland started the season by watching its head coach get arrested and scrapped to a record just above .500 anyway, with one of its young players taking the difficult leap from good to great. With all that context, a B+ feels appropriate.

Playoffs: C+

Trail Blazers vs Spurs — The Blazers weren’t able to solve the Victor Wembanyama problem. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

Nothing that happened before the start of the postseason matters for this section, however. And the Blazers were a bit disappointing in their first playoff foray in a while.

Their play-in win over the Suns was tremendous and featured a furious fourth-quarter comeback that marked the most exciting moment of Portland basketball in ages. Game 2’s thrilling victory over a Victor Wembanyama-less Spurs was more of the same, an invigorating sight for the many Blazers fans starved for competitive, intense basketball. But they fell completely flat in the four losses that sent them packing; Game 3 and 4 were especially offensive on that front.

In Game 3 the Blazers had a real chance to take a 2–1 lead over San Antonio while Wemby continued to recover from a concussion. Instead they lost while allowing rookie Dylan Harper to walk all over them. In Game 4 Portland took a huge lead into the locker room and proceeded to epically collapse, allowing the Spurs to become the first team in NBA playoff history to win by more than 15 points after losing by more than 15 at halftime. That’s a disaster no matter how outgunned the Blazers might be talent-wise compared to their 60-win opponents.

Henderson suddenly playing like the No. 3 pick he was in the 2023 NBA draft was a delightful surprise for everybody but especially for the Blazers’ front office. He was awesome, particularly in Game 2, and gave plenty of reason to believe he can be a long-term piece. Avdija didn’t fade after his great regular season ... but he didn’t step up the way true stars are supposed to, either. At-large, most of the roster shied away from the bright lights of postseason play and only the experienced Holiday-Williams combo put forth consistent efforts.

In fairness, the Blazers’ biggest problem in this series was that they didn’t have a guy like Wembanyama. And that is not a problem unique to them. But Portland had a real chance in this series with his concussion—a chance they failed to seize. Thus, a C+ recognizes the quality Game 2 win and the failures to capitalize in equal measure.

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