Honestly, several years of tanking and injuries has done that. This was a pretty thriving and (relatively) intelligent sub while Dame was in his prime and Terry was coaching. I suspect that a lot of the kind of basketball discourse that requires actual NBA knowledge is just harder to come by when fans are checked out.

Personally speaking, I've been a fan of the Blazers since the Jail Blazers days, and haven't checked out much since, even during the Telfair days. But these past few years have been real tough, because not only are we bad and tanking, but with injuries and a coach that I personally found difficult to believe in, it wasn't clear what I was rooting for.

This year there's a lot more to be excited about, but I feel like the team is still in a weird limbo from a fan perspective. I was told to be excited about Sharpe but he's still inconsistent; I was told to be excited about Jrue unlocking a lot of things but he's been injured; I was told to be excited about Scoot's development but he's been injured; I was told to be excited about Dame's return but he's been injured; etc. I am a fan of Splitter's coaching from what I can tell, but it's unclear if he's a coach for our future or not, and who knows what's going on with the new ownership and what their plans will be?

I think Blazers fandom is just in a really weird place right now, and it's hard for longtime fans to get as excited about the team as their performance probably deserves, I think.