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After suffering a first-round exit a year after reaching the Western Conference Finals, the Portland Trail Blazers entered the shortened offseason with a clear goal in mind: surround their backcourt of All-Star Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, along with starting center Jusuf Nurkic, with more talent. Now, days before the start of the regular season, general manager Neil Olshey and the team’s front office were able to do that and more.
After a series of trades, free agent signings, and extensions to their own players, the Trail Blazers emerged as one of the offseason’s biggest winners, and seem primed to improve on last year’s 35-39 win-loss record and contend for one of the higher playoff seeds in the Western Conference. Among Portland’s recent additions are Robert Covington, Derrick Jones Jr., Enes Kanter, and Harry Giles, while also bringing back Rodney Hood and Carmelo Anthony.
Portland’s strong offseason surrounds Lillard with arguably the deepest and most talented supporting cast that he’s had, with a mix of promising young players and battle-hardened veterans. This gives the Blazers a chance to move up in the Western Conference despite other contenders also making moves in the offseason.
Here are four bold predictions for the Blazers’ 2020-21 season.
1. The Trail Blazers will have a top-15 defense
Asking the Blazers to play average defense may not seem like much, but the team is coming off a season where they finished near the bottom defensively, giving up an average of 116.1 points per game, which ranked 26th in the NBA, and a defensive rating of 114.8, which ranked 28th.
The addition of Covington brings the Blazers some much-needed defense into their starting lineup, while Jones Jr. and the returning Hood are also capable of guarding multiple positions. Losing center Hassan Whiteside will hurt, as he was the team’s rim protector who averaged a league-leading 2.9 blocks per game last season. But the addition of long, versatile wing players in Covington and Jones should be able to help the Blazers keep up with some of the league’s best players.
Covington, in particular, should be a good fit alongside Lillard and McCollum and will likely have the unenviable task of shadowing the opposing team’s best player. It’s a tall task, but it’s something with which the former Houston Rocket is familiar. Despite Whiteside’s departure, the addition of these players ensures that the team will show some improvement on defense next season after finishing the 2019-20 season as one of the league’s most porous defenses.
2. The Blazers bench will be much improved
Despite having one of the league’s best offenses, which scored an average of 115 points per game, ranking sixth in the NBA, and an offensive rating of 113.7, ranking third, the Blazers’ reserves didn’t actually do much to help Lillard, McCollum, and the starters. Portland’s reserves averaged just 26.5 points per game last season, tying the Boston Celtics for the worst mark in the league.
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Their recent additions and the return of some of their key players from injury should help address this need and give some much-needed firepower to their bench. Anthony, who will likely come off the bench, averaged 15.4 points last season and should be able to help head coach Terry Stotts’ second unit. Kanter, who was a part of the Blazers team that reached the conference finals, averaged 8.1 points for the Celtics last season and now joins their bench.
Hood, who averaged 11 points before going down with an injury just 21 games into the season, should also give the team a lift once the starters take a rest. Young players like Gary Trent Jr., Anfernee Simons, Zach Collins, Nassir Little, and Giles also gives the Blazers a better overall rotation than last season, making sure that they can still keep up with other teams’ reserves once their starters take a breather.
3. Damian Lillard wins the MVP Award
Lillard is coming off his best year since entering the league, averaging a career-high 30 points, 4.3 rebounds, 8.0 assists, and 1.1 steals while shooting 46.3 percent from the field and 40.1 percent from beyond the arc. In the NBA bubble, with the Blazers playing behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the eighth seed in the playoffs, Lillard elevated his game even higher, averaging 37.6 points, and 9.6 assists while shooting 43.6 percent from downtown during the seeding games as he helped Portland to a 6-2 record. The five-time All-Star’s play during the seeding games resulted in him being unanimously named as the Bubble MVP.
It’s unlikely that Lillard can sustain his ridiculous numbers during the resumption of last season in Orlando, but with the five-time All-NBA selection in his prime and playing the best basketball of his life, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in the thick of the MVP conversation. However, it appears the Lillard has once again slipped under the radar, as he was surpassed by the likes of Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, and Stephen Curry in ESPN’s predictions for the MVP candidates.
But if Lillard continues to put up huge numbers, and the Blazers compete for one of the top four seeds in the Western Conference, the 30-year-old will be a strong contender for the MVP award alongside Doncic, James, and Antetokoumnpo. Doncic in particular seems to be primed to win the award in just his third season, but with Lillard playing the way that he has and having a supporting cast that can compete against almost any team and ensures that Portland will be firmly in the playoff race, it wouldn't be surprising to see Lillard take home his first MVP award.
4. Portland clinches the fourth seed in the West
ESPN predicted the Blazers to improve on their 35-39 record last season, projecting them as a 41-win team that should secure the sixth seed in the Western Conference and avoid the play-in tournament that they had to go through in the NBA bubble. The Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, and Utah Jazz were all placed ahead of the Blazers in ESPN’s projected standings.
However, aside from the Lakers, Clippers, and the Nuggets, a healthy Portland squad can go toe to toe with any other team in the Western Conference, especially if Lillard recaptures the deadly form that he flashed during the bubble. Barring injuries or chemistry issues, the Lakers and Clippers likely finish with the top two spots in the conference with a Nuggets team that is fresh from a trip to the conference finals likely to follow.
The rest of the spots, however, should be up for grabs, and it isn’t unlikely for a Blazers team teeming with talent and led by a motivated Lillard to compete and ultimately end up with one of the top four spots in the West and a homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
