The One Vote Against
So the NBA is now officially coming back in Orlando, with the vote passing 29 to 1. So who is the one lone team to vote against the new proposal you ask? The Portland Trailblazers.
Woj was tweeting earlier about the vote, and said something along the lines that their vote reflected the views of their players, and that Portland was under the belief that there were more competitive formats out there to return to play. Now I’m not sure if they favored more games because they’re a part of a very close race to get the eight seed, but this format seems pretty fine to me. Granted I don’t know what other formats were on the table, but a potential eight seed play-in sounds fair. I can understand why Portland was against this style of return, though. They had a bunch of momentum and were gaining on the Grizzlies who were struggling at the time. Maybe they were under the belief that they deserved a higher chance at the eight seed than those below them in the standings. Either way a vote like this has me thinking about the long-term plans for the Trailblazers.
For the most part, the teams the Blazers will be fighting with for the eight seed are super young, up and coming teams. The exception to this being the Spurs, who in my opinion, should have started a rebuild as soon as Kawhi left. That leaves the Kings, Grizzlies, and Pelicans. The Kings have a core of De’Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III, and Buddy Hield. The Pelicans have Brandon Ingram, Zion Williamson, and Lonzo Ball. Then the Grizzlies are building around Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and maybe even Brandon Clarke. My point is, most of the teams fighting for that last playoff spot in the West would use it for some real playoff experience for the younger guys. The Spurs would use it to keep their playoff streak alive for another year, and the Blazers would use it for… well… I don’t know really, I mean Lillard even said he wouldn’t want to play unless there was a legit chance of the Blazers making the playoffs.
Damian Lillard is my favorite NBA player outside of the Celtics, and I think a big part of that is because of his mentality. He’s one of the few loyal guys left in the league, and maybe the most clutch as well. However, I think it might be that loyalty that costs him a ring. I think if there were the right pieces around Dame, the Trailblazers could easily get to the Finals, and if there were any time to do it, it would be now. CJ and Dame are both in their prime, and Nurkic is a solid center to run alongside them. The only issue is that they really don’t have many starting caliber forwards. I mean when Nurkic returns are you really going to put out a lineup of him and Whiteside on the court at the same time? Hell no.
They don’t even have a ton of youth on the team to help lead them into the future either. I mean Nassir Little seems like a solid prospect, but is he really someone who can make a real immediate impact on the team to help them win now? I’m more interested to see what the team does moving forward. Is it going to become another scenario where a player’s career is wasted on a team that could never put a team around him? Sort of like an Allen Iverson situation in Philadelphia. I mean the guy couldn’t carry everything by himself. And I’m not saying Lillard has nothing, either. McCollum is solid, Nurkic is solid, and even some of the bench guys like Trent and Simons have shown promise. The only issue is that in this NBA where superstar duos and teams with tons of depth are running the show, it just won’t be enough.
The way I see it they have three options. Option one is that they build up the depth on their team to where it was last year and try competing that way. The departure of guys like Kanter, Aminu, and Seth Curry really hurt their depth overall. Option two is that they try to recruit another star to Portland to play with Lillard and McCollum. I can guarantee they’ve tried this before, so barring any major changes, I don’t know about this one. Finally option three, and the least likely option in my opinion, is that they gut the roster and start over. The only issue here is with a super loyal, MVP caliber point guard like Lillard, I can’t see a scenario where Portland just guts it right now. All that being said, we’ll have to see what happens in August. Maybe they’ll surprise everyone and make the playoffs and make a run. We’ll see.
