The Athletic is back with their annual anonymous player poll, and a few Blazers have earned a place. Sam Amick and Josh Robbins wrote up the findings after The Athletic polled 158 players representing all 30 teams in the NBA, although not all of the 158 voted in all of the categories.
Three Blazers got votes for the league’s most underrated player. Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara both made the list with 1.5% of the 136 votes cast. That puts them in a tie for 13th place with 14 other players. Cade Cunningham took top honors in the category with 8.8% of the vote, while former Blazer Norman Powell was third with 4.4% and sort-of former Blazer Jrue Holiday was tied for fifth with 2.9%. Anfernee Simons collected a single vote.
Victor Wembanyama lapped the field in the polling for who will be the face of the league five years from now with 54.3% of those voting. Portland’s Shaedon Sharpe received a single vote.
Also receiving a single vote was the Portland Trail Blazers for best organization in the league. The Golden State Warriors led the category with 21.9% of the votes, followed by the Oklahoma City Thunder at 17.5%, and the Boston Celtics at 15.3%. Call me puzzled at the LA Clippers landing in 4th place at 8.8%.
Another category with a Portland appearance was for the best coach in the league. For this category players were not allowed to vote for their own coach. The oft-maligned Chauncey Billups tied for 12th place with 1.4% of the vote. Mark Daigneault, head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder, took top billing with 21.8% of the vote.
Humorously, the companion category to the one above, namely the worst coach in the league, also saw Chauncey Billups get 1.4%. Due to roughly half the number of responses to the latter question, 1.4% translates to 2 votes for best coach and 1 vote for the worst coach for Billups.
The players are picking the Boston Celtics to be successful in their title defense, earning 57.7% of the votes. Oklahoma City was runner up for who will earn the title at 17.5%.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the players’ choice for MVP with 56.1% of the vote, followed by Nikola Jokic with 37.4%.
Other questions that catch the eye include the idea of changing to 10-minute quarters, the NBA’s gambling partnerships, and shortening the regular season in exchange for a lower salary. 78.4% of the votes were against the idea of 10-minute quarters, with 13.1% in favor and 8.5% undecided. 46% of the responses felt that gambling partnerships were bad, with 34% saying they were good. When it comes to a shorter season but less salary, a whopping 85.6% of NBA players were against.
In summary, no one in Portland headlined any of the categories, but there were enough mentions to hold the interest of Blazers fans. Other than the single negative vote for Billups, the Blazers also avoided the negative categories in the poll.
