The Portland Trail Blazers' dreams of making noise in the playoffs all but vanished entirely in late March, when Jusuf Nurkic suffered compound fractures to his left tibia and fibula, ending his season in horrific fashion. Nurkic, thankfully, avoided nerve damage, and is expected to make a full recovery in time to play at some point next season.

In terms of notoriety, Nurkic isn't the type of player whose absence could almost single-handedly sink a team's postseason hopes. But he emerged as two-way bellwether for the Blazers in his fifth season, posting a +13.2 on-off net rating — not only highest on the team, but one of the best marks in all of basketball. Needless to say, Portland just isn't the same without Nurkic.

Don't tell that to Enes Kanter, though. The recently-acquired big man, now starting in place of Nurkic at center, believes the Blazers not only have what it takes to contend in the playoffs, but even compete for a championship.

“I believe in this team,” he told NBC Sports Northwest after Portland's loss to the Denver Nuggets on Friday. “I think this team is a championship team. I think this locker room has enough talent to beat every team on every floor. We just need to stay together and go from there.”

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Frankly, it would have been shocking if the Blazers, in a world where Nurkic was still available, won more than a single playoff series. Without him, they'll likely be underdogs in the first round, even if current positions hold and Portland has home-court advantage in a likely matchup with the Utah Jazz.

Hope springs eternal, though, and the culture Damian Lillard has fostered in the Blazers' locker room means this team is fully capable of becoming a whole greater than the sum of its parts in the playoffs. But even should that possibility come to fruition, Portland will still be a rung below the league's top-tier contenders.