After The Timeout · NBA 2026-27 guide

Western Conference · tip-off October 20

Portland Trail Blazers

Our win estimate next to the market's, the last three seasons, who came and went, and the rotation we expect.

Our estimate

41 wins

Median of 20,000 simulated seasons. Middle 80%: 36 to 47 wins.

The market

42.1 wins

Where the Kalshi yes price for "wins or more" crosses 50%.

Last season

42-40

2025-26 · net rating -0.3 (19th in the NBA)

Our estimate and the market are within 0.2 wins of each other.

Treat the gap as a flag, not a verdict. In backtests on 2024-25 and 2025-26 (60 team-seasons) this kind of estimate missed a team's win total by 8.3 wins on average. Last season's wins pulled toward 41 missed by 9.0. Ratings built from games alone said 42 wins for this team.

Damian Lillard (35 projected minutes) has no 2025-26 regular-season games on file but is in the rotation we expect. Our roster rating counts him at his most recent full season.

Two ways to count wins

Our range against the market

The blue bar is the middle 80% of our simulated seasons. The orange line is the market's win total.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 42.1 market wins in an 82-game season
Our median 41, middle 80%: 36 to 47 Market 42.1

Where we think they finish in the West

Top 6: 32% Play-in, 7th to 10th: 56% Outside the top 10: 12%
Market prices by strikeKalshi, captured Oct 19, 4:38 pm UTC
Wins or moreBidAskMidOur odds
2094¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
2593¢ 100¢ 97¢ 100%
3090¢ 97¢ 94¢ 100%
3561¢ 75¢ 68¢ 95%
4055¢ 59¢ 57¢ 67%
4540¢ 41¢ 41¢ 23%
5029¢ 33¢ 31¢ 3%
558¢ 62¢ 35¢ 0%
605¢ 16¢ 11¢ 0%
650¢ 98¢ n/a 0%

A strike with no bid is treated as unpriced. The market win total is a straight line between the two strikes that straddle 50%.

What the scoreboard said

The last three regular seasons

Ratings are points per 100 possessions. Possessions are estimated from box scores, so treat them as close, not exact. Ranks are out of 30.

2025-26 · 42-40 (18th in wins)

Points per game
115.517th
Allowed per game
115.816th
Offensive rating
111.822nd
Defensive rating
112.113th
Net rating
-0.319th

2024-25 · 36-46 (21st in wins)

Points per game
110.922nd
Allowed per game
113.915th
Offensive rating
109.623rd
Defensive rating
112.514th
Net rating
-2.922nd

2023-24 · 21-61 (27th in wins)

Points per game
106.429th
Allowed per game
115.419th
Offensive rating
106.229th
Defensive rating
115.223rd
Net rating
-9.029th

Our preseason ratings

Offense
-0.3820th
Defense
-0.9512th
Net, games only
+0.5617th
Roster value
+0.54

Offense, defense and net are points per game against an average team, fitted on every completed game before tip-off (defense: lower is better). Roster value is the on-court net per 48 minutes of the players on the roster list, weighted by minutes.

Who came and who left

Offseason moves

Built from the DraftKings roster list and 2025-26 box scores. Players who left had at least 500 regular-season minutes here last season.

In (5)

  • Micah Potterfrom IND
    19.3 min, 9.7 pts a game
  • Ja Morantfrom MEM
    28.4 min, 19.4 pts a game
  • Branden Carlsonfrom OKC
    11.7 min, 5.8 pts a game
  • John Tonjefrom BOS
    8.4 min, 3.0 pts a game
  • Damian LillardReturningLast played 2024-25 for MIL

Out (4)

  • Jerami Grantnow with MEM
    29.8 min, 18.6 pts a game
  • Kris Murraynow with MEM
    23.5 min, 5.8 pts a game
  • Caleb Lovenow with PHI
    20.7 min, 10.4 pts a game
  • Rayan Rupertnow with PHI
    12.0 min, 2.9 pts a game

The rotation we expect

Top eight by projected minutes

Minutes come from our DFS minutes projection and are not scaled to a 240-minute game. Open a player for three seasons of per-game lines and shooting.

Damian Lillard G · age 36 · 35.0 projected min 2025-26: no regular-season games on file

2025-26

No regular-season games on file.

2024-25 · MIL

58games
36.1min
24.9pts
4.7reb
FG44.8%444/992
3P37.6%197/524
FT92.1%362/393

7.1 assists a game

2023-24 · MIL

73games
35.3min
24.3pts
4.4reb
FG42.4%541/1277
3P35.4%220/622
FT92.0%473/514

7.0 assists a game

Toumani Camara F · age 26 · 33.9 projected min 2025-26: 82 g, 13.4 pts, 5.1 reb, 2.5 ast

2025-26 · POR

82games
33.3min
13.4pts
5.1reb
FG44.0%392/891
3P37.0%219/592
FT70.8%97/137

2.5 assists a game

2024-25 · POR

78games
32.7min
11.3pts
5.8reb
FG45.8%328/716
3P37.5%135/360
FT72.2%91/126

2.2 assists a game

2023-24 · POR

70games
24.9min
7.5pts
4.9reb
FG45.0%197/438
3P33.7%58/172
FT75.8%75/99

1.2 assists a game

Deni Avdija F · age 25 · 33.9 projected min 2025-26: 66 g, 24.2 pts, 6.9 reb, 6.7 ast

2025-26 · POR

66games
33.4min
24.2pts
6.9reb
FG46.2%492/1064
3P31.8%125/393
FT80.2%489/610

6.7 assists a game

2024-25 · POR

72games
30.0min
16.9pts
7.2reb
FG47.6%402/844
3P36.5%125/342
FT78.0%290/372

3.9 assists a game

2023-24 · WSH

75games
30.1min
14.7pts
7.2reb
FG50.6%406/803
3P37.4%88/235
FT74.0%202/273

3.8 assists a game

Jrue Holiday G · age 36 · 31.9 projected min 2025-26: 53 g, 16.3 pts, 4.6 reb, 6.1 ast

2025-26 · POR

53games
29.4min
16.3pts
4.6reb
FG45.1%320/709
3P37.8%137/362
FT83.8%88/105

6.1 assists a game

2024-25 · BOS

62games
30.7min
11.1pts
4.3reb
FG44.3%254/573
3P35.3%108/306
FT90.9%70/77

3.9 assists a game

2023-24 · BOS

69games
32.8min
12.5pts
5.4reb
FG48.0%331/689
3P42.9%138/322
FT83.3%60/72

4.8 assists a game

Ja Morant New here G · age 27 · 28.5 projected min 2025-26: 20 g, 19.4 pts, 3.2 reb, 8.1 ast

2025-26 · MEM

20games
28.4min
19.4pts
3.2reb
FG41.0%132/322
3P23.5%20/85
FT89.7%105/117

8.1 assists a game

2024-25 · MEM

50games
30.3min
23.2pts
4.1reb
FG45.4%404/889
3P30.9%88/285
FT82.4%263/319

7.3 assists a game

2023-24 · MEM

9games
35.3min
25.1pts
5.6reb
FG47.1%80/170
3P27.5%14/51
FT81.2%52/64

8.1 assists a game

Scoot Henderson G · age 22 · 28.2 projected min 2025-26: 30 g, 14.2 pts, 2.7 reb, 3.7 ast

2025-26 · POR

30games
24.9min
14.2pts
2.7reb
FG41.8%143/342
3P35.2%57/162
FT84.0%84/100

3.7 assists a game

2024-25 · POR

66games
26.7min
12.7pts
3.0reb
FG41.9%287/685
3P35.4%105/297
FT76.7%158/206

5.1 assists a game

2023-24 · POR

62games
28.5min
14.0pts
3.1reb
FG38.5%307/797
3P32.5%87/268
FT81.9%167/204

5.4 assists a game

Donovan Clingan C · age 22 · 26.5 projected min 2025-26: 77 g, 12.1 pts, 11.6 reb, 2.1 ast

2025-26 · POR

77games
27.2min
12.1pts
11.6reb
FG52.0%356/684
3P34.1%84/246
FT68.0%138/203

2.1 assists a game

2024-25 · POR

67games
19.8min
6.5pts
7.9reb
FG53.9%180/334
3P28.6%14/49
FT59.6%62/104

1.1 assists a game

2023-24

No regular-season games on file.

Shaedon Sharpe G · age 23 · 25.2 projected min 2025-26: 50 g, 20.8 pts, 4.3 reb, 2.6 ast

2025-26 · POR

50games
29.4min
20.8pts
4.3reb
FG45.2%392/868
3P33.7%103/306
FT78.7%155/197

2.6 assists a game

2024-25 · POR

72games
31.2min
18.5pts
4.5reb
FG45.2%499/1104
3P31.1%147/472
FT78.5%190/242

2.8 assists a game

2023-24 · POR

32games
33.1min
15.9pts
5.0reb
FG40.6%176/434
3P33.3%60/180
FT82.4%98/119

2.9 assists a game

How to read this

Method and limits

How our estimate is built
  • Our estimate starts from the roster. Each player's on-court net points per 48 minutes (from his most recent full season, pulled toward zero when the sample is small) is averaged by minutes across the roster list, then turned into wins at about 2.9 wins per point of net.
  • That win total is then pushed through the real 2026-27 schedule 20,000 times, using a home win probability for every game, to get the range and the playoff and play-in odds.
  • Ratings built from games alone (6,153 games before October 20) are kept as a comparison. They fade old games over the offseason, which pulls every team toward average.
  • The market number is the wins where Kalshi's "wins or more" price crosses 50%, read off a straight line between strikes five wins apart.
What the estimate does not know
  • Possessions are an estimate from box totals, not tracked possessions.
  • The season simulation uses each game's win probability from the ratings and nothing else: no rating uncertainty, injuries, trades after the cutoff or in-season rating updates, so the 10th-90th percentile band is narrower than a real season's spread.
  • The 2026-27 schedule file lists 1200 games (80 per team on average) rather than 1230. Each team's missing games ([2] per team) are played against an average opponent at a neutral site with no rest terms.
  • Projection method: (d) roster values. In the walk-forward study its hold-out MAE was 8.3 wins (n = 60 team-seasons) against 9.0 for last season's wins regressed toward 41. Typical error is still about 8 wins per team, so treat every number as a wide estimate.
  • Roster values use each player's box-score plus-minus, which is not adjusted for teammates. Players with no box-score history count as average at 10 minutes a game.
  • Ties in the seeding are broken at random; head-to-head and division rules are not applied.
  • Every team has a usable market median.
  • Market median uses the midpoint of the yes bid and ask for each strike and a straight line between the two strikes (5 wins apart) that straddle 0.5; a strike with no bid is treated as unpriced.
  • Rosters are the DraftKings Best Ball player list for draft group 150564, kept only where the player is on his team's current ESPN roster (ESPN team rosters, 2026-10-19): released and departed players are out. Players DraftKings lists as Out are not in the engine's pool, so they have no projected minutes and are not in the top 8; each team's moves block names them.
  • Projected minutes are the engine's per-player estimates from box scores through 2026-04-12; they are not scaled to the team's 240 minutes and do not model new teammates.
  • Box scores start in 2021-22; a player with no box score on file is marked as a rookie or new, which can include veterans returning from abroad. Ages come from the ESPN player directory (2025-26 file) and are missing for players it does not list.
  • This team has 2 games the schedule file does not list yet; they are treated as games against an average opponent.

Data built Oct 19, 2026. Estimates are ours and can be wrong.