Ending as the third-best team in the Western Conference is usually good ju-ju. That is, unless you’re the Portland Trail Blazers and get swept in the First Round by the New Orleans Pelicans.
As the team gears up for this upcoming season, the stories surrounding them have been mostly negative. In a nutshell, they read like this: Portland was a flukey third-seed who was exposed in the playoffs.
This is a hard perspective to shake.