Damian's Inferno: The New Heat behind the Trail Blazers

     The Trail Blazers, a fixture as an elite team in the West for the past few seasons, seem to have finally begun to wane in the power rankings.  The years of trying to find a suitable big man partner for the newly crowned All Star LaMarcus Aldridge have worn them thin, and so it seems the Blazers have given in and started up into the rebuild process.  This rebuild responsibility has been put squarely on the shoulders of the number six pick in the draft, rookie guard Damian Lillard.

                                                      Can Lillard bring back hope to Portland?


     After dominant play during the NBA Summer League, Damian Lillard looks more than capable to play at an NBA level.  Lillard averaged 26.5 points, 5.3 assists, and 4 rebounds per game in a week of summer league play earlier this year and has shown he has the confidence to be leader for the future.  Like most incoming guards, Lillard plays with a highly athletic drive and focuses on getting to the rim with superior ball handling skills and has a nasty penchant for putting the ball in the basket through a crowd.  Although he has solid shooting talents, his real prowess right now seems to be the ability to finish around the rim.  This style of play could possibly open up a lot of possibilities for the Blazers, who have relied on the streaky Felton for initiating a lot of their offense in the past.

     Even though the acquisition of Lillard has been a bright spot for the team, the Blazers made just this one step forward and four steps back.  In the off-season, they let Jamal Crawford, Hasheem Thabeet, and Joel Przybilla walk. Most people would probably focus on the fact that they let Crawford go, a perennial swingman shooter with the ability to make or break a game.  To me, however, it seems more important that they let the other two centers go.  Todays game is dominated by only a handful of real, true big men centers.  To have the size of these two players, despite their low impact on the stat sheet, is an immense bonus going into games.  With Aldridge struggling to carry the weight of both the power forward and center positions, having two seven footers on the bench helped quite a bit to ease his strain.  And, as Eric Carmen would say,  those days are gone.  Meyers Leonard, another rookie, has been brought in the fill that void.  Leonard is athletic and big but he has a lot to learn about playing the center spot with players stronger than him.  He has a lot of potential, but he needs to learn quick to give the Blazers a chance.

                                                             Leonard. A future elite center?

 
      More losses include Jonny Flynn, a solid backup at the point guard spot, and the love of Nicolas Batum, a casualty of the back and forth tug of war between the Blazers and Timberwolves.  Despite winning the bidding battle for the defense heavy forward Batum, he was quoted multiple times saying that he did not want to play in Portland anymore.  The signing of an elite defensive player like Batum is a smart move for any team, unless that player is going to play half-heartedly  because he is unhappy.  Another huge loss that many overlook, is the fact that their star player, Aldridge, is entering his prime and playing at a level at his position second only to Kevin Love, while the rest of his team is in a rebuild process.  That is not a team that is going to make Aldridge happy.  As hard as he might play for the next few seasons, The Blazers will not be among the NBA elite, and in the future when Leonard and Lillard are coming into stride, Aldridge will have exited his prime.

     All in all, the Blazers have a true steal in Damian Lillard.  He is athletic, strong, and a good passer at his level.  But to have a winning team and become an NBA power again, they will need a few more key pieces or decide whether to truly rebuild by cutting ties with Aldridge.