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Trail Blazers face the Los Angeles Lakers on November 6, 2021. Bruce Ely / Trail Blazers

Five Trail Blazers Make CBS Sports' 2022 Positional Rankings

With NBA training camps starting next week, the yearly attempts at ranking players is upon us. But rather than attempting to rank the entire league -- a task that is both impossible and unnecessary -- the folks over at CBS Sports have set out to rank the Top 100 players, a little less than a quarter of the league. But they've broken out players by position before releasing their overall ranking, with five Trail Blazers making the list in their respective categories.

Considering the most recent season the Trail Blazers endured, having a version of their starting lineup (at least if you squint a little) all making the rankings seems rather even-handed. Observe...

• Damian Lillard, the highest-ranked player on the team (naturally), comes in at No. 4 on CBS Sports' preseason point guard rankings...

Stephen Curry, Luka Doncic and Ja Morant are the only point guards ranked ahead of Lillard, respectively, with Trae Young, Chris Paul, James Harden, Jrue Holiday, Kyrie Irving and Jamal Murray all coming in behind Lillard. There's no position in the NBA more talented than point guard, and it's not especially close.

• Next up, shooting guard, the one position in which the Trail Blazers have multiple players on CBS Sports' rankings. First, Gary Payton II, signed as a free agent this offseason after winning a championship last year with the Warriors, starts off the shooting guard rankings at No. 22...

If you are who you defend, you could probably rank GP2 at forward just as easily as guard, but most of these positional distinctions have gotten pretty loose in today's NBA. Either way, good to see Payton II make the list, where he comes in behind Derrick White at No. 19, Buddy Hield at No. 20 and Jalen Green at No. 21.

Ten spots down the list, one of Payton's new teammates, Anfernee Simons, who also signed a lucrative free agent contract this offseason, comes in at No. 12...

Not a bad ranking for Simons, though I suspect he'll at least be in the top 10 come this time next year. Ant comes in ahead of Bogdan Bogdanovic at No. 15, Norman Powell at No. 14 and Seth Curry at No. 13 while coming in right behind Jordan Poole at No. 9, Gary Trent Jr. at No. 10 and Tyler Herro at No. 11. And Devin Booker takes the top spot among shooting guards.

• After getting blanked in the small forward category -- which begs the question since he's not listed at shooting guard either: Where is Josh Hart? -- the Blazers make the power forward list with another new arrival, Jerami Grant, coming in at No. 10...

Grant is easily the best power forward on Portland's roster since LaMarcus Aldridge, so yes, that should serve the Blazers well.

Grant comes in ahead of Aaron Gordon at No. 15, Julius Randle at No. 14, Dorian Finney-Smith at No. 13, John Collins at No. 12 and Tobias Harris at No. 11. He's immediately behind Evan Mobley at No. 9, Jaren Jackson Jr. at No. 8 and Draymond Green at No. 7, with Giannis Antetokounmpo taking the top spot.

• Finally, we arrive at the centers, where Jusuf Nurkic, fresh off playing at EuroBasket 2022 with Bosnia & Herzegovina, comes in at No. 19...

Nurkic is ahead of Bobby Portis at No. 22, Wendell Carter Jr. at No. 21 and Jakob Poeltl and behind Jonas Valanciunas at No. 18, Kevon Looney at No. 17 and Christian Wood at No. 16 with Nikola Jokic taking the top spot.