The Portland Trail Blazers are going to the playoffs. Six months ago, you would've had a hard time convincing anyone of that eventual reality. After losing four of their five starters from the season before, including All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge, the Blazers appeared to be bound for the draft lottery and on the verge of a full rebuild.
As the only starter left from the year before, point guard Damian Lillard had other plans for his team.
“I knew that it was going to be tough, losing so much of our team and so many guys who were huge parts of our team," Lillard told USA TODAY Sports this week. "But I saw the talent that we brought in. And I knew that guys hadn’t gotten as much of an opportunity at their previous team. Some of the guys coming in were rookies, some were guys that were kind of unappreciated — and I knew that they would be hungry. I knew that they wanted to really prove that they could be valuable to the team."
Four of those players — C.J. McCollum, Al-Farouq Aminu, Noah Vonleh, and Mason Plumlee — have started alongside Lillard for the majority of the season and have all taken steps forward as players, particularly McCollum, who is a frontrunner for the Most Improved Player award. Before this season, the four of them combined for 244 starts in 654 total games played.
Lillard — a starter since joining the league and a two-time All-Star — embraced his leadership role from the get-go and understood some of the talent that had been hidden in years past.
"I just wanted to uplift guys, give them confidence, show that I trust them and believe in them and just try to make the most of the season, with no pressure on us to do anything" Lillard said. "I continued to encourage guys and just let them know that we can get something done.”
After starting off the season with an 11-20 record, "getting something done" was easier said than done. But Lillard and the Blazers didn't falter.
“Even when we were losing games, our team didn’t get down and we didn’t pout," Lillard said. "We never gave in. we just continued to work. We trusted the process that we had to go through. With all the new guys and so many guys not playing a lot of minutes in the league, we knew that it would take time for us to grow as a team, for us to develop chemistry, and just to get better."
The team started to turn the corner in late December, but as that happened, Lillard hit some speed bumps of his own, as he missed the first games of his career (plantar fasciitis) and was subsequently snubbed of a spot in the 2016 All-Star game. At that time he was averaging career highs in points and player efficiency rating while only trailing Stephen Curry in points per game and three-pointers made amongst point guards.
“It was a little bit frustrating, but winning solves everything. I said, 'you know, maybe I need to take it up another level. Maybe I just need to be better instead of thinking that somebody did me wrong," he said. "Maybe I need to just take it up a level and make my team a better team and help my whole team get to the next level and win games, because that’s ultimately what counts.' I just took it as a challenge to raise the level of my play and try to make my team a more successful team from that point on."
Well, here we are.
The Blazers have gone 33-18 since the slow start, and since the All-Star break, rank third in the NBA in points per game, third in offensive rating, and second in three-point percentage.
As the the fifth seed in the Western Conference, they will face the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs. The Blazers went 1-3 in the season series with the Clippers, but Lillard has faith in his team.
“We just gotta be ourselves. Go out there and play hard, play together," Lillard said. "You gotta understand that you’ve gotta play smart basketball in the playoffs. They’re a veteran team … we have nothing to lose. There’s no pressure on us to do anything."
“We can compete with them, and we know that for a fact.”
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