Ushering in a new era of Portland Trail Blazers basketball seems to be the theme of the 2015 NBA offseason. The Rip City roster no longer resembles the crew that had back-to-back 50-win seasons over the past two years, but one thing it can hang its hat on is that youth and potential have become the beacons of hope in an otherwise confusing time.
In a 15-part series, Oregon Sports News’ Bryant Knox and Jared Wright will be breaking down each player on the Trail Blazers roster. The series will conclude with an OSN Roundtable in October covering the state of the franchise entering the 2015-16 campaign.
Today, we take a look at the face of the franchise. The $120 million man. The guy who carries all the benefits and burdens of being the top player on an NBA team for the first time in his young career. Damian Lillard.
I’m going to break from our usual format today. For detailed statistical analysis on Damian Lillard’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall production, check out my OSN archives (link at the bottom of this article), nba.com/players, or basketball-reference.com.
I wish to offer commentary more than anything, because the challenges facing Lillard aren’t just about maintaining his scoring, or bumping up that three-point percentage back to his usual levels, or improving that horrid defense. The basketball stuff is something myself, Bryant Knox, and others will be covering for you throughout the Trail Blazers’ upcoming season here at Oregon Sports News.
The play itself is only one aspect of a multi-faceted role Lillard thrust himself into, you see. He’s going to have to deal with being the sole face of a franchise, the man on whom most of the Rip City faithful have placed their faith in the future. He’ll have to learn how to lead a team like a real point guard instead of working off another All-Star. In fact, he’ll be without an All-Star teammate for the first time in his career.
Lillard also will be facing an incredible amount of defensive attention, given that he is currently one of a very few proven offensive threats the Blazers employ. Others will develop during the season, but the rest of 2015 is going to be rough for Lillard while the new guys get their sea legs playing in coach Terry Stotts’ system. Lillard hasn’t proven that he can actively get an offense flowing through passing or bending defenses; we’ll see if LaMarcus Aldridge’s departure either removed a crutch or exposed a weakness in Lillard’s game.
He’ll be the point man for every Blazer-related venture, which he pretty much was anyway because of Aldridge’s introverted tendencies, but it also means that he will be the first guy credited with any team success, and the first one blamed for Portland’s failures (which I think will be a huge pile of them–check out our upcoming Roundtable to see what the rest of the guys think).
Us locals likely think differently, but the national media see the Portland Trail Blazers as “Damian Lillard and a bunch of young dudes,” which isn’t that far off the mark truthfully. Sure, Gerald Henderson and Chris Kaman are veterans, but anyone that’s observed the Blazers’ business the last three months know that Hendo and Air Sasquatch won’t factor into GM Neil Olshey’s plans long-term; both vets could be used as trade bait, though the lure of Kaman’s mostly non-guaranteed contract is significantly lessened due to the NBA’s exploding salary cap.
That’s the situation that Lillard got himself into, and I daresay that’s even what he wanted. Screw winning: Damian Lillard just wanted to be The Man.
I see that look on your face. You’re wondering what made me say that. Here’s my reasoning.
Professional athletes are an egotistical bunch; they have to be to succeed at what they do, which also might go for most other walks of life I suppose. There isn’t a football player alive that doesn’t think that he isn’t going to make an impact on every play even though he’s just one of 22 guys on the field.
There’s not a baseball player alive that doesn’t think he won’t get a hit off the pitcher, nor is there a pitcher that doesn’t think he won’t make that batter whiff. Everyone thinks they’re faster, stronger, tougher, or just plain better than everyone else. Even when it’s proven that they’re not, that athlete picks him/herself up, goes to the gym, and trains harder in an effort to get as good as the one that just beat them.
Basketball players, though, seem especially susceptible to the athlete’s egotism. It stems from Larry Bird’s cold, ruthless cockiness, Magic Johnson’s playmaking on the court and philandering off the court, Michael Jordan’s iron grip on an entire decade after the other two retired, and the hugely unsuccessful efforts of later generations of players to live up to the cult of personality that was Jordan.
Some guys are able to swallow their egos and share the spotlight, or forgo it altogether; a reason that Aldridge was so popular in Portland was because of his quiet nature and chill personality. That is at odds with thestereotype people have about NBA players, that they are loud, flashy, rude, and ignorant – an impression that my generation, thankfully, has done a great deal to dispel.
The best teams in NBA history featured great players that were able to shelve the egos that made them great in the first place. Just look at what the Golden State Warriors did last year, or what the San Antonio Spurs (who not so coincidentally now employ Aldridge) have done for seemingly 157 years now. Though Stephen Curry is the best player on the Warriors, that culture is clearly a one-for-all, all-for-one kind of deal. Same with Tim Duncan and the Spurs. The personalities of the best players makes that kind of dynamic work.
The guys that typically are able to overcome their egotism are older players, however. Though Duncan has been the way he is since he entered the league in 1997, and Curry is a young guy, they’re definitely the exception to the rule.
Which brings us back to Damian Lillard.
During the summer, he refused an invite to attend Team USA’s minicamp. The refusal disqualifies him from the Olympic team the U.S. will send to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, next year, but that’s not what I want to discuss.
The thing is, everybody who was invited attended the camp, even injured players like Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant. They didn’t go solely to qualify for Olympic consideration. They went because Team USA duty is one of the few times players of their caliber gather in such numbers.
The older guys go to say hi to their buddies, chat about how life treated them last season, and make pitches to guys to join their teams (LeBron…). The younger guys go all-out in scrimmages, testing themselves against their peers, refining existing skills or picking up new ones.
Lillard didn’t go not because he had beef with anybody, or that he didn’t think he wouldn’t benefit from the experience. He didn’t go because he still held a grudge over being left off the 2014 World Cup team in favor of a frail Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving…who played for Team USA’s head coach in college.
He likely wouldn’t make the Olympic team, either; Chris Paul, Curry and James Harden are locks, Russell Westbrook if healthy is a lock, John Wall is knocking on the door, and Irving is Coach K’s favorite. But that’s not the damn point.
It’s all about going there, putting in some light work, picking up tips, roasting and getting roasted by guys just as good or better than you, having a generally good time, and most importantly, maintaining goodwill with the folks that run USA Basketball.
I’m a big believer in not burning bridges unless you absolutely must. I stayed in a crappy job three years longer than I should have, working for a clueless old fart and with a woman I cared about who chose to marry a guy I despised after trying to get me fired, because of this ethos. Even now, I don’t hold any grudges. I’m doing well now where I am, I’ve found a wonderful woman I’m proud to call my lady friend, and I don’t see any point in holding a grudge.
Damian Lillard, apparently, thinks differently. I get that it’s part of who he is, having a chip on his shoulder from being overlooked all his life. However, he’s made it to the big time now. He’s recognized as one of the better players in the league, a guy who is one of the most prolific three-point shooters in NBA history, and he’s built a reputation as a stone-cold killer in crunch time. Hell, that shot he hit against the Houston Rockets in 2014? I guarantee you that still haunts Chandler Parsons’ dreams.
There really is no need for Lillard to hold 2014 against USA Basketball. Aldridge might have been an influence on Lillard; the big fella doesn’t have the best relations with the national team either. But after hearing some scuttlebutt about the events of this year’s free-agency period, I believe it was 100% Lillard.
Now, about Aldridge…
Usually when a star player enters free-agency, the best players on his incumbent team, and the teams that are chasing him, go all-in on their recruiting efforts. Tweets, calls, visits, chats, and even vacationing together: all these things happen every summer between top free-agents and the guys who want to play with them.
Aldridge didn’t get together with Lillard at all during his free-agency. Lillard might have read the writing on the wall, as Olshey reportedly did. Or Lillard might have wanted Aldridge out of the way so he can have his own team.
Aldridge is 30 years old, and was never the kind of guy that sought attention; the move to San Antonio, where he will forever be in the shadow of Tim Duncan, proves that. If he thought like Lillard, he’d have gone to the Los Angeles Lakers, or the Phoenix Suns, and taken over those crappy teams.
Lillard, meanwhile, is just 25. Young enough both to want to establish his own name and brand further, and to think that he’ll eventually get back into contention for a championship. Young enough for all those alpha-dog mentalities all good basketball players possess to percolate at peak levels, especially after Lillard’s swift rise to national recognition and NBA prominence.
Look, I think Damian Lillard is a good guy at heart. And I have a good reason to think that: Lillard last year donated winter clothing to kids at Rigler Elementary, where I spent my grade school years, in Northeast Portland. I went there because my parents worked long hours, and my babysitter, an old woman named Jody (the closest thing I ever had to a grandmother), lived literally across the street. I stayed there until my dad got off work and came to get me, usually around 7:00.
How that area of town is laid out is both odd and sad. From Prescott St. southward to about Fremont or Sandy (depending on where you are), there are a series of small hills that go roughly west-east from 52nd to I-205. On the top of those hills, in the Rose City Park neighborhood, are the kinds of nice, big houses you typically find in Irvington or Sellwood; my best friend Paul lived in one of those houses.
On the slopes of the hills themselves, from Fremont to Prescott, are a mix of mostly good places. You get a few dumpy bungalows here and there, but the area was well-looked after and populated by lower-middle class to middle-class working folks like my parents, who bought one of those bungalows and remodeled it into a respectable house, elevating its value exponentially along the way.
Below the hills, in the flat area between Prescott and Killingsworth St., are the kinds of places you’d think of whenever you hear the word “ghetto.” There, the decent-looking houses (like the one my babysitter had near Rigler) were few and far between. The houses themselves were mostly built to help house the poor and minorities that survived the Vanport flooding of 1947, and they were as ramshackle as the folks living in them were lazy and slobby. Think of the worst stereotypes among white, black, and Hispanic people, and those were generally the kinds of folks that populated the area around Rigler.
The kids there belong to poor households and are trapped in a go-nowhere situation, and any kind of gift has to be appreciated. It’s possible Lillard looked at that neighborhood and was reminded of his own upbringing in Oakland.
Still, the professional decisions he made, and didn’t make, point towards the kind of selfish tendencies that are very hard to knock out of a player that young and talented. I hope that when age or losing smoothes those rough edges, Lillard hasn’t alienated more stars, and is still playing for the Trail Blazers. The potential for a great leader of a basketball team is there.
If Damian Lillard can reach it.
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