The Portland Trail Blazers are embarking on the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes in earnest this season.

With the NBA having unveiled its full 2024-25 regular season schedule Thursday afternoon, it’s now clear that several key matchups could abet the Trail Blazers’ tanking prospects. The 17-year-old Flagg, a 6-foot-9 Duke commit out of Florida’s Montverde Academy, turned heads in playing for the USA Select Team, while practicing against a loaded Team USA squad in Las Vegas this summer. He is seen as a potential generational prospect, and the probable No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.

But to get bad enough for maximal lottery odds, Portland will need to drop some winnable games against its fellow NBA dregs.

This year’s Trail Blazers currently have 13 back-to-back contests in this year’s schedule. They had 14 last season. Six games will be road-and-rod matchups, four will be home-and-home, and three will be home-and-road.

Portland’s first game will be against the wholly revamped Golden State Warriors on October 23, whom the club will host at the Moda Center. The Trail Blazers will remain home for the next two games, both matchups against the New Orleans Pelicans on October 25 and 27.

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The Pistons are poised to once again be pretty bad, though they will no longer be the league’s most miserable franchise. Detroit has hired what looks like a coaching upgrade in ex-Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, and has brought on veterans like Tobias Harris. The team will be competent, but still seems likely to finish outside of the top 10 and head straight to the lottery. It’s essential that the Trail Blazers sew up the loss here.

The Wizards owe major coin to two seventh men, ex-Golden State Warriors champion shooting guard Jordan Poole and former Los Angeles Lakers champion combo forward Kyle Kuzma. The club has some major project lottery picks in rookie forward Alex Sarr, the No. 2 pick this year who enjoyed a miserable Summer League run, and second-year shooting guard Bilal Coulibaly.

The Trail Blazers’ first matchup of the year against one of the league’s surefire lottery squads, a matchup against a freshly-extended Lauri Markkanen and his far-less polished teammates could be a trap win. Portland will be playing at home, and will have had three days off from their most recent contest, a road matchup against the L.A. Clippers on December 3. It would behoove Chauncey Billups to, say, play his four rotation-worthy centers together or something and ensure that the Trail Blazers drop this one.

The Bulls owe a top 10-protected 2025 pick to the San Antonio Spurs as a result of their DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade in 2021, which resulted in one playoff appearance in three years and a single-game win. Chicago let the six-time All-Star walk to the Sacramento Kings this summer, and flipped two-time All-Defensive Second Team guard Alex Caruso to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for raw young guard Josh Giddey. The team missed the postseason last year after losing in the play-in tournament. This year’s squad looks to be even worse. Portland needs to botch this game.

After flipping All-Defensive small forward Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks, the Nets are embracing the tank, and are looking like this year’s Pistons. Critically, this game takes place directly after three straight must-lose games — against the Charlotte Hornets on February 22, the Jazz on February 24, and the Wizards on February 26.

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