Portland Trail Blazers
Next to Ben Simmons headlines, Damian Lillard headlines have also dominated the offseason, but we seem to have some answers on his future, at least for this season that is.
Earlier in the offseason, there were a lot of trade rumors about Damian Lillard wanting out of Portland, but the All-Star point guard quickly refuted these reports, stating that he wants to stay with the Trail Blazers and win with the Trail Blazers.
This is definitely true and Lillard may very well want to stay in Portland, but is this Trail Blazers team truly aligned to win right now? They have made the playoffs for eight consecutive years, which believe it or not is the longest active playoff streak in the NBA, but they have been to the Western Conference Finals just once in this time span, getting swept by the Golden State Warriors there in 2019.
No Portland Trail Blazers team over the years has had a championship-caliber play, which is why Lillard could very well be nearing the end of his time with this franchise. Unless management makes a big move to drastically change this franchise, the Portland Trail Blazers are nothing more than a mid-tier team in the Western Conference.
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Damian Lillard can only do so much to help this Portland Trail Blazers team win games, as can CJ McCollum, but they just do not have the firepower to compete with other top teams in the west. Robert Covington, Norman Powell, and Jusef Nurkic are all really solid secondary options, but this organization just has not been able to get the job done in recent years.
How the Blazers play and how they fare in the postseason this upcoming year is going to tell us a lot about what the future holds for Damian Lillard.
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If the Portland Trail Blazers fail to make it out of the first round of the playoffs and they fail to finish as one of the better teams in the Western Conference, it is definitely not crazy to believe we could see Dame in a new jersey next season.
