There's a possibility Damian Lillard returns to the court in a few days after seeking further consultation for abdominal tendinopathy. It seems only a matter of time until C.J. McCollum suits up again, now fully healed from a collapsed right lung that's caused him to miss a full month of the regular season. Even if the Portland Trail Blazers' star backcourt comes back sooner than later, though, it'd be foolish to expect Lillard and McCollum to immediately reach their typical levels of play.
The Blazers still haven't offered a concrete timeline for McCollum to take the floor, and there's a chance Lillard could be shut down for an even longer period after getting additional opinions on the nagging injury to his midsection. No matter what happens with Lillard and McCollum from here, Portland will need their teammates to pick up some major slack to realize its hopes of vaulting up the Western Conference standings over the season's second half.
Here are three Blazers to watch as Lillard and McCollum watch from the sideline and eventually begin rounding back into form.
Anfernee Simons
No player on the roster's role differs more than Simons' depending on the availability of Portland's veteran guards. His usage rate playing without Lillard and McCollum is 28.5%, per NBA.com/stats, a mark befitting a team's primary ball handler. That number dips more than eight points when Simons shares the floor with one of them, though, and is more than cut in half in lineups that feature all three of the Blazers' score-first guards not named Norman Powell.
Simons has flourished as Portland's offensive alpha dog over the last two games, pouring in 71 points, hitting 14 triples and doling out 14 assists against the short-handed Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat. Though still not ready to be a team's full-time point guard, the comfort and ease with which Simons orchestrated the Blazers' offense is a ringing endorsement of his ability to make further strides as a playmaker going forward.
Anfernee Simons' heavy heart helped him reach a higher plane against the Hawks #RipCityhttps://t.co/njFFuI0qb5
— Blazers Nation (@BlazersNationCP) January 4, 2022
What this mini breakout means for Simons' future in Rip City is unknown. He's arguably Portland's most attractive trade asset and is due a major payday this summer in restricted free agency. Having already committed pricey, long-term contracts to Lillard, McCollum and Powell, it might be most prudent for the Blazers' future flexibility to move Simons before the February 10th deadline or in a deal come July—even if McCollum or Powell is no longer on the roster.
Either way, Simons' performance is by far the most intriguing byproduct of Lillard and McCollum's absence, whether or not he's a part of this team's future beyond 2021-22.
Nassir Little
Given Simons' inconsistencies after a hot start, no player in Portland has burnished their standing more this season than Little. Billups challenged him during training camp to play with unrelenting energy and force every time he steps on the floor, hoping to leverage Little's rare physical gifts into sustained impact as his skill set catches up to his tools.
That's already been accomplished less than halfway into the regular season. Little provides the Blazers a jolt of effort, intensity and physicality none of his teammates can come close to matching. Maybe his NBA destiny is as nothing more than a power wing off the bench, finishing plays at the rim and from three while capably guarding multiple positions on the other end. Portland shouldn't be disappointed if that ultimately proves the case.
Dame on Nassir Little: "We all know that he brings something to our team that nobody else does. The athleticism, the competitiveness, the pop. It can be infectious…Nobody else has that ability to affect the game the way he can." #RipCity
— Jack Winter (@ArmstrongWinter) November 13, 2021
Still just 21, though, Little has a golden opportunity to stretch his limits as a self-creator and overall scorer with Lillard and McCollum out. He's already shown much-improved ability to attack close-outs for one-dribble jumpers or aggressive straight-line drives to the rim. The next step hopeful step for Little is venturing into a less dependent role on offense, operating as a second-side pick-and-roll ball handler and pushing the pace even harder as a transition engine.
Odds are that Little's lack of feel with the ball and limited wiggle as a penetrator will keep him from ever becoming a major component of a team's offense. But as a long, athletic wing with a tightening jumper and natural finishing verve, Little deserves the latitude to fail while trying to round off the rough edges of his offensive repertoire—especially with plenty of shots and touches to go around.
Jusuf Nurkic
The expanded offensive role Chauncey Billups promised Nurkic shortly after his hiring and throughout training camp has hardly come to pass this season. He's taking essentially the same amount of shots he did in 2020-21, and barely getting more scoring opportunities in the post or as a pick-and-roll dive man, per NBA.com/stats. Nurkic isn't a permanent fixture of Portland's closing five, either, sometimes losing crunch-time minutes to Larry Nance Jr.
But injuries to Portland's high-usage perimeter stars have at least briefly allowed Nurkic to explore studio space offensively in the way he anticipated coming into 2021-22. He took 18 shots against Atlanta, eventually goading double-teams on the block after over-powering Clint Capela for multiple scores with his back to the basket. The woefully undersized Heat paid him some extra attention down low, too.
A free agent after this season, Nurkic is another of Portland's prime trade candidates. Personal dreams of him ever becoming a low-post hub of scoring and playmaking are long gone. But Nurkic could still have more to offer offensively than what he's been allowed to show with the full-strength Blazers, and an uptick in production sans Lillard and McCollum could make him a slightly more enticing trade piece to teams who need help at center.
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