The Trail Blazers Are The NBA's Most Unique Team
Remember when many were discussing Damian Lillard's immediate future with the Portland Trail Blazers in the middle of the 2021-22 season? There was a lot of speculation last year that Lillard was frustrated with the way things were trending in Portland and that he could potentially look to request a trade during the offseason.
Well, Lillard made his stance on the matter very clear when he signed a two-year, $122 million extension that keeps him in a Blazers’ uniform through the 2026-27 season and all Portland has done since then is win.
They won the Summer League championship with a 4-1 record, not that anyone really cares what happened in Summer League, and so far to begin the 2022-23 season, Damian Lillard and the Trail Blazers are 4-0 and they are getting better each game they play.
It is not like they have beaten some of the bottom-tier teams in the league either, as the Blazers have defeated the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers on the road, the Phoenix Suns at home and most recently, they trounced reigning back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets by 25 points on Monday night.
At the beginning of any NBA season, we see teams start off hot and immediately fall down in the standings, but this does not seem to be the case with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Sure, they may still hit a rough patch in the season, as many teams tend to do, but what makes the Blazers such a unique team is the balance and depth that they have created for themselves while facing hardships.
Last season, the Trail Blazers finished with a 27-55 record, their worst season since going 21-61 during the 2005-06 season. In 53 total seasons, the Blazers have failed to win more than 27 games in a season just six times and last year was one of those instances.
Obviously this is not what anyone in the organization wanted to happen, but the 2021-22 season allowed Portland to take a step back, evaluate where they were as a franchise and make the moves they deemed necessary in order to begin building for long-term success.
So, they went out and dealt long-time shooting guard CJ McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans and then they traded both Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers. In the process of making trades, the Trail Blazers were able to bring back valuable assets such as Josh Hart, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and some draft assets.
In the offseason, The Trail Blazers then went out and drafted Shaedon Sharpe with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, they signed Gary Payton II using their available cap space in free agency and then they traded some draft assets that they had acquired through the years for Jerami Grant, a viable, two-way wing that can fill many needs for this organization.
All of a sudden heading into the new year, the Trail Blazers looked like a team that had depth, athleticism and plenty of room to grow. So far this year, all of these things have been on display and Damian Lillard has been at the center of everything, leading this team to the best record in the league through the first week of the season.
“Our understanding for what we're trying to do is just getting better,” Lillard said after the Blazers’ most recent victory over the Nuggets. “I think the best thing about it is that it feels sustainable.”
Through four games this season, Damian Lillard is averaging 33.3 points per game and was most recently named the Western Conference Player of the Week, Anfernee Simons is averaging 19.8 points per game and is coming off of a game in which he scored 22 points and shot 6-7 from three-point range in the third quarter, and Josh Hart has suddenly turned himself into one of the best rebounders outside of the center position in this league.
Hart is averaging 10.3 rebounds per game through the first four games of the new season, only trailing LeBron James (11.0 rebounds per game) for the most rebounds per game by a non-big this season.
They are having fun, they are efficient offensively and perhaps the most important factor to prove why the Blazers have a chance to sustain success is the fact that they have really improved defensively. With Gary Payton II coming back at some point within the next month as well, the Trail Blazers are only going to get deeper and better on both ends of the floor.
The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers may be dominating headlines as the “teams to beat” in the Western Conference, but keep an eye on Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers because as of right now, all they know how to do is win games.
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