The Portland Trail Blazers haven’t instilled a lot of hope in FiveThirtyEight, which has given the Oregon franchise the 19th best chance at the Larry O’Brien Trophy this season.
The pollsters have predicted the Blazers to finish with a 38-44 record — an improvement of 11 games on last season — just below the New York Knicks and above the Utah Jazz.
It predicts Portland to carry -1 percent point differential, giving the squad a 42 percent chance to make the playoffs in a loaded Western Conference.
The Playoffs are an even worse proposition with FiveThirtyEight giving the Blazers a 1 percent chance of making the Finals and 0.