What’s Damian Lillard’s Future With the Portland Trail Blazers?
Whether it is all the uncertainty about his future in Portland or something else affecting the 6x All-Star, he truly is the source of many of his team’s problems right now. Portland needs Lillard to be his best each and every night for them to have a chance to be an elite team in the Western Conference, but as he struggles, so does the rest of the team.
“I can’t say that I know it’s going to be a process and we’re going to have growing pains and then when it actually happens, I respond in a way where like, I didn’t know that it was possible,” Lillard said after his team’s most recent defeat to the Cavaliers. “It’s not what you want. It’s not something that everything is fine just because I knew it was going to happen. But you know that it’s going to happen when you have a completely new staff, new offense, a completely new defensive scheme.”
Out of rhythm and out of touch with the game right now, Lillard’s struggles really sum up what kind of year dating back to last season it has been for the Portland Trail Blazers. Key injuries to McCollum, Nurkic, and others last season really threw the Trail Blazers’ success off course and they just never looked like a confident team last season.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Damian Lillard Considered Requesting Trade From Trail Blazers
This really showed in the postseason when McCollum and Lillard were the only two players delivering for this team. Portland won some games in their series against the Nuggets, but Denver without Jamal Murray was able to take down Lillard’s Blazers.
Entering this season, there were some high expectations for this team given the coaching change and key talents they added in Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller, Ben McLemore, and others, but a 3-5 start puts the Blazers in a really bad position early on. They will now have to fight to climb out of an early-season hole and their schedule is not going to get any easier, as four of their next six games are on the road.
“I hate that we’re a counter-punching team,” Billups said in regards to his team’s recent performances. “We wait for people to jump on us to start competing and fighting. And then you put yourself in a position where you’ve got to play perfect down the stretch. And we’re just not that type of team right now to be trying to play perfect down the stretch. We’re just not playing good enough. And so it’s frustrating to watch because we try to prepare the best way we can.”
When you look at the Blazers as a whole, they have all the talent they need to be a competitive playoff team in the Western Conference, but they just do not have that overall “wow-factor” that other teams have.
LATEST NBA NEWS & TRADE RUMORS: Damian Lillard Considered Requesting Trade From Trail Blazers
The Lakers have their “Big 3” with LeBron, AD and Westbrook. The Jazz are one of the best three-point shooting teams and have multiple guys in Mitchell, Conley, Gobert, Bogdanovic, etc. that can score in double-figures on any given night. The Warriors are finally healthy again and have depth at every position, giving them plenty of options to turn to on the perimeter for production.
