The Injury that Sneakily Destroyed the Damian Lillard Era in Portland
Damian Lillard doing his famous “Dame Time” celebration.
(Photo credit: Fansided)
The end of the Damian Lillard era in Portland is imminent, as he has requested a trade from the Blazers. While Lillard's 10 seasons in Portland are largely considered a disappointment because of the lack of a championship and overall underwhelming playoff success, there was once a time when Blazers basketball showed much promise.
After drafting Damian Lillard sixth overall in the 2012 NBA draft, Dame would go on to win Rookie of the Year unanimously, quickly putting the league on notice for what a prolific shooter and scorer he would become. That offseason, the Blazers selected guard CJ McCollum to provide more shooting and scoring support for Dame. While McCollum would spend his first couple of years on the bench, the Blazers would also sign solid veterans that would drastically help the team. They added Mo Williams as a solid veteran backup point guard off the bench and Robin Lopez for help on defense. Those additions combined with Dame, all-star Lamarcus Aldridge, solid starter Nicolas Batum, and the three-and-D sharpshooting Wesley Matthews would give the Blazers what appeared to be a contending core for years to come. The Blazers would finish the 2013-14 season with a 54-28 record aided by the second-best offense in the NBA. They would defeat James Harden’s Houston Rockets in round one of the playoffs where Dame hit an incredible deep three-pointer at the buzzer to close out the series in game six. Although they would end up falling to the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in five games in the second round, the Blazers got the league’s attention as they were projected to only get better with the development of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. The team would live up to those expectations when they started the 2014-15 season 30-11 at the season’s halfway mark. At this point, they appeared to be championship contenders with their immaculate offense and solid defense. But a few weeks later, the nearly unthinkable happened. Wesley Matthews, a key part of both the Blazers’ offense and defense, would tear his Achilles. He was one of the last players this type of injury was expected to happen to because Matthews had gained a reputation as an NBA iron man as he had missed just 13 games in total when his injury would happen in his sixth NBA season. The loss of Matthews for the season left them without their best catch and shooter and a reliable wing defender, causing their defense to downfall drastically. Portland would go on to finish 51-31, fourth in the Western Conference, and fall to the Grizzlies in five games in the first round of the playoffs.
Following that loss, Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez, Aaron Afflalo, and LaMarcus Aldridge would all leave the Blazers in free agency. They would also trade Nic Batum to the Charlotte Hornets in an attempt to build a younger core around Damian Lillard. Essentially, five of the Blazer's six best players from the 2014-15 season were gone. The following year, CJ McCollum would win most improved player after his points per game average jumped from 6.8 to 20.8 in the 2015-16 season. However, the Blazers losing their best wing players left them extremely vulnerable on defense which resulted in a second-round exit to the Warriors after escaping round one from the tail end of the Lob City Clippers era after Chris Paul and Blake Griffin both suffered injuries in the series.
During the 2016 offseason, the salary cap had risen over $24 million from the year before, creating an increase in pay demand from that year’s free agent class since it was widely assumed that the salary cap would continue to rapidly increase. However, this would not be the case as the salary cap would only rise marginally in the few following years. Although the Blazers were not the only team to significantly overpay players that offseason, they were the biggest victims of it since they signed several players to multi-year contracts, with all maybe Mo Harkless living up to their contract. They did extend CJ McCollum which was the right move, but the inflated salaries prevented the Blazers from getting real star talent to pair with Dame and CJ.
The most successful year of the Damian Lillard era would come in the 2018-19 season where they would make a Western Conference Finals appearance. That year, the team became a bit less Dame and CJ dependent after signing Seth Curry and acquiring Rodney Hood through a trade. However, that series would end in a Warriors sweep despite them missing Kevin Durant. 2019-20 once again fit the same theme of a team with a great offense, but almost no defense and a disappointing playoff exit. But that’s the result to be expected after signing Carmelo Anthony far past his prime. The past couple of years have seen the Blazers seemingly want to rebuild around Dame, but there seems to be no real direction as the front office appears to be making both rebuilding and win-now moves. They traded CJ McCollum to the Pelicans but then also sign Jerami Grant to a five-year contract. These seem to be the front office’s biggest mistake as the Blazers have not made the playoffs the past two seasons and have ultimately resulted in a (finally) frustrated Damian Lillard who demanded a trade. Worst of all, they may not even get the full compensation Dame is worth because he only wants a trade specifically to the Miami Heat.
All in all, Damian Lillard gave Portland fans lots of memories and iconic moments while he was on the team. But they were never able to reach the ultimate goal of a title. Hopefully, the team learns from this chapter and does a better job of building around Scoot Henderson.
