Residing right behind the OKC Thunder with the usual suspects hovering around the top of the Western Conference standings is one particular squad that no one saw coming.
The Portland Trail Blazers have quietly been bullying teams during these early stages of the 2025-26 campaign, and it doesn't look like they are going away anytime soon.
Portland is coming off a two-year stretch where they lost a combined 105 games. More recently, they were seen giving up on reclamation project Deandre Ayton in the offseason and lost their head coach within the first few days of the season.