The Portland Trail Blazers are no strangers to early NBA playoff exits, but this one hurts more than most. Unlike the Blazers of recent years, this team had all of its stars healthy and a higher seed that allowed them not only home court in the first round but the privilege of not facing the Golden State Warriors right out of the gate. Moreover, the Warriors without Stephen Curry had been looking disengaged and vulnerable over the last month of the season, and it seemed reasonable to hope that the Blazers would not merely advance beyond the initial series but ambush the Warriors and secure a spot against the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. The Blazers would have been underdogs against the Rockets, but their game was similar enough to where it wasn’t inconceivable that Portland’s backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum could get hot shooting threes and maybe sneak the Blazers into the Finals. Alas, their dreams met a quick end at the hands of Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, and the rest of the New Orleans Pelicans. It might have been some consolation if the Pelicans had continued their dominance against the Warriors in the second round, but the Warriors’ victories in Games 1 and 2 only reinforced the reality that the Blazers as currently constituted have no chance of playing for a Larry O’Brien Trophy short of a few well-timed plane crashes involving their rivals in the Western Conference. Their front office has some serious thinking to do.
Most of the recent analysis of the Blazers points to their many expensive contracts and lack of cap space, which suggests that they will have a difficult time improving without making a deal that fundamentally alters the structure of the team. In other words, the Blazers may need to consider breaking up their backcourt and trade either Lillard or McCollum, along with a bad contract or two, for someone who can at least defend well if not replace all of the scoring of whomever gets dealt. Given how Lillard has been featured as the face of the franchise the last few years, it seems likely that McCollum would be the more expendable of the two if the Blazers decide to take this leap. It would be hard for Portland’s fans to swallow, but there is precedent for this kind of trade to be a difference maker. The Warriors once broke up a backcourt, trading Monta Ellis for Andrew Bogut, which allowed Stephen Curry to take over the Warriors offense and acquired the rim protection they had lacked for most of the franchise’s history. We all know how that turned out.
The Blazers will bear watching this off-season. My guess is that they will be making some moves.
