The Portland Trail Blazers are one of the more stable playoff teams in the NBA. Well, at least, they were up until this season.

The Blazers entered 2021-22 having made the playoffs in eight straight seasons, the longest active streak in the NBA. But they traded away C.J. McCollum, Norman Powell and other key contributors at the deadline last month, using the rest of the season as a testing ground for young players and to make sure they get a lottery pick in the upcoming draft.

Winning isn't exactly Portland's top priority, obviously, but there are still 18 games left to play before a crucial offseason dawns. Here are two Trail Blazers predictions for the rest of the 2021-22 NBA season.

Trail Blazers predictions for rest of 2021-22 NBA season

Anfernee Simons will absolutely shine 

The team has not officially announced it yet, but they are likely shutting down Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic for the season. Lillard last played on December 31st and had surgery to address nagging abdominal pain two weeks later, while Nurkic was ruled out after the All-Star break for at least a month with plantar fasciitis. Remember, the Blazers only retain their first-round pick this summer if it falls in the lottery. Shutting down Lillard and Nurkic for the season's remainder would go a long way toward ensuring Portland keeps its pick.

But benching impact players like Lillard and Nurkic has also accelerated the development of Anfernee Simons, who's cemented himself as a future star since the New Year.

The No. 24 pick of the 2018 draft, Simons didn't earn a full-time spot in the Blazers' rotation until last season. Further empowered by rookie head coach Chauncey Billups, he entered 2021-22 entrenched as Portland's backup point guard, helping instill confidence in Simons that sometimes proved fleeting over his first three years in the league. Simons is averaging 17.3 points per contest this year, shooting 44.3% from the field and an elite 40.3% from three-point range, proving himself as a foundational building block since Lillard went down two months ago.

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He had a career-high 43 points in a win against the Atlanta Hawks on January 3rd, beginning a stretch where the Blazers youngster has averaged averaging 23.4 points on 45.6% shooting from the field and an even better 42.3% from behind the arc. He's also getting 5.8 assists per game over that timeframe, which is an even better sign for the Blazers going forward. Now, with McCollum traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, he will have even more space and freedom to operate offensively.

Thus, we should really look out for Simons to dominate going forward.

The Blazers might still sneak into the postseason 

The postseason has become a very difficult term to define. With the introduction of the play-in tournament, it is hard to draw a line between the end of the regular season and making the playoffs. If we consider the play-in tournament as the postseason, the Blazers might be in a position to still make the tournament, more due to their lack of real competition toward the bottom of the West.

It will be difficult, as they will be without multiple key contributors, but it is still possible the Blazers feature in at least one postseason game if the standings continue thinning out around them. Of course, the Blazers still need to win a few games to reach the final play-in spot. Right now, they are 11th in the Western Conference with a 25-38 record. That is about two games back of the 10th-place Pelicans and three behind the ninth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers.

The Pelicans are surging, powered by their duo of McCollum and Brandon Ingram, but the Lakers are not playing well. It is true that they just beat the Golden State Warriors, but it took LeBron James scoring 56 points to eke out a win. While not their intention, the Blazers—led by the aforementioned Simons—might power Portland to tenth come season's end.