Heading into the 2022-23 NBA campaign, the Portland Trail Blazers are hoping to re-enter the playoff mix. After missing out on the play-in tournament last season and being forced to play without elite combo guard Damian Lillard, the Trail Blazers will undoubtedly be back with a vengeance.

After a busy offseason where they made several quality additions and re-signed sneaky good center Jusuf Nurkic, the Blazers could make things interesting as a feisty lower seed in the stacked Western Conference. On that note, let's take a look at three bold predictions for Trail Blazers ahead of next week's regular season start.

Blazers predictions for 2022-23 NBA season

3) Damian Lillard will put up All-Star numbers throughout the year

After having his season cut short due to an abdominal injury in 2021-22, Damian Lillard will look to bounce back in a major way and light up the stat sheet with more memorable performances. As he aims to lead Portland back to the playoffs, Lillard knows what is expected of him and how badly this team needs him to be at full strength.

This is especially true if they're hoping to make any noise beyond the regular season. Lillard will certainly have his work cut out for him, but at this point in his career, Dame Time has had too many clutch performances to count. So it's only a matter of time before he's back to his old tricks and catapulting the Trail Blazers back into postseason relevance.

2) Portland will have a balanced attack all season long

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With the additions of Gary Payton II and Jerami Grant and the re-signing of Jusuf Nurkic, the Trail Blazers could have some quality depth in the works. Add to that the stellar play of Shaedon Sharpe, Anfernee Simons and Josh Hart with solid contributions from Justice Winslow, and suddenly the Trail Blazers have a well-rounded supporting cast around Lillard. This also gives them reliable young players whom they can continually develop when they begin the post-Lillard era in Portland.

1) The Trail Blazers will lose in the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs

Overall, the Trail Blazers definitely have all the right pieces in place to earn a playoff spot in 2023, but considering how deep and talented the Western Conference currently is, it's hard to imagine this squad making it beyond the first round. Given that they'll have to compete with the likes of the Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, Phoenix Suns, Denver Nuggets, and now the New Orleans Pelicans, they'll definitely have their work cut out for them.

It's a tall mountain to climb and it doesn't seem very likely that they'll be able to surpass the overwhelming amount of talent to make a surprise run to the 2023 NBA Finals. Now you never know what could happen in this league, however it also helps to be realistic. Plus with the way the Trail Blazers are currently constructed it just doesn't seem plausible that they'll be one of the higher seeds out West.

Even with the heroics of Lillard and Nurkic giving them consistent production on a nightly basis, they still don't have enough firepower on their roster to outlast the competition and power their way through the always unpredictable Western Conference landscape. There's a small chance that they could shock the basketball world and write off the naysayers, but at this point that'd be wishful thinking.