Blazers news: Damian Lillard vows Portland will turn things around after slow start -- 'Just watch'

Portland Trail Blazers star point guard Damian Lillard insists the franchise will turn things around. The club is 5-12 to start the season.

The Portland Trail Blazers were on the doorstep of the NBA Finals last season. They entered the 2019-20 campaign with lofty expectations, yet sit at 5-12 after a disappointing loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.

One person not hitting the panic button?

Star point guard Damian Lillard, who's pleading with everybody to “just watch” as the Blazers try to flip the script over the course of the long season:

“You all probably don’t want to hear it, but it’s such a long way to go,” Lillard said to reporters Saturday, per Jason Quick of The Athletic. “Because of that, there are two things you can do: you can either pout and say we should have won that game, or ‘We should have did this’ or ‘We are not doing this.' … I think our team understands that there are certain things we are not doing well enough to win games. But we really do as a group believe it is going to turn around. So, we are just going to stay with it and keep working towards improving. That’s all we can do.”

One of those things that the team isn't doing well is defense. Portland has yielded 116.3 points per game to this point in the season, the sixth-worst mark in the league. Comparatively, they yielded just 110.5 last year and finished in the top half of the league.

Lillard knows the Blazers have problems, but he's trying not to worry too much:

“I’m not a big worrier,” Lillard said. “Obviously, there is reason for concern in certain areas. We are not trending in ways that we want to be as far as winning games and taking advantage against teams that have the same record as us, or the teams we feel like we should come in and beat.”

While Lillard references the schedule, it's worth noting that the Blazers have played just five of their first 17 games at home. Last season, they went 32-9 at home, while they have opened the 2019-20 year 1-4 in Portland. Despite that, optimism remains for Lillard, who has helped lead this franchise on huge winning streaks in the past.

Lillard and the Blazers will try to turn things around against the Chicago Bulls on Monday.