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Best of the Season, Part XX: Trail Blazers’ regular season ends with win over Utah Jazz

By Matt George Moore

PORTLAND, OR - APRIL 11: The shoes of Jusuf Nurkic #27 of the Portland Trail Blazers agianst of the Utah Jazz at Moda Center on April 11, 2018 in Portland, Oregon.NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - APRIL 11: The shoes of Jusuf Nurkic #27 of the Portland Trail Blazers agianst of the Utah Jazz at Moda Center on April 11, 2018 in Portland, Oregon.NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) /
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And last-but-not-least: The final installment of our Best of the Season series finds us celebrating a Blazers win over Utah at the Moda Center.

Viewed from 30,000 feet, the Portland Trail Blazers’ 2017-2018 regular season was a smashing success.

Portland won the Northwest Division and finished third in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. And they won eight more games than they did in 2016-2017, when they snuck into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.

The Blazers’ defense improved, rating among the NBA’s Top 10 — a massive jump from the previous season, when they finished the year at No. 21.

Dame

There were individual accolades, too.

Well, one individual received accolades.

Damian Lillard made the All-Star team for the third time. He ranked No. 51 on ESPN’s “World Fame 100” list. The National Basketball Players Association named him the NBA’s “Mr. Clutch.” And for the first time in his career, he made the All-NBA first team.

Blazers’ Problems

And yet, Lillard’s growing trophy case highlights something that plagued the Blazers throughout the season: A lack of significant contributions from players not named Lillard or C.J. McCollum.

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Portland will not make any significant progress without getting Dame and CJ some help. That’s the obvious and inevitable conclusion once we drop down from 30,000 feet to examine the Blazers’ season at a more granular level. And it’s why Portland was unceremoniously dumped from the playoffs in a first-round sweep at the hands of the New Orleans Pelicans.

Supporting Cast

The Blazers are in a bit of a salary pickle — tied to contracts handed out in the outlier 2016 offseason. Therefore, it’s not clear where that help will come from.

The best Portland can hope for is that players start to contribute more than they did in 2017-2018.

Jusuf Nurkic showed signs of dominance, but his inconsistency remains troubling.

We’ve already seen Evan Turner best; he won’t surprise us with anything more than he’s already shown us.

And Maurice Harkless? Well, Moe appears to be dealing with issues that plague him both on and off the court. When he is fully engaged, he can be a game- and season-changer, but he’s yet to show that he can bring it night in and night out.

Perhaps Young Zach Collins will continue to blossom. But he’s still young; he won’t turn 21 until November. I think it will be a few more years until we can speak of him as a legit third, fourth or even fifth option.

All in all, a good Blazers season. But when examined up close, cracks are apparent.

Our final “Best of the Season” is another good example of this.

Jazz-Blazers

The Blazers beat the Jazz 102-93 on April 11 at the Moda Center. And it was a lot more of the same-old, same-old from the Trail Blazers.

A little less than one month removed from their 13-game winning streak, Portland was wheezing down the stretch. They’d lost four in a row heading into this final game of the regular season. And all the things that contributed to the win streak — solid, shut-down defense; contributions from up and down the lineup — were absent.

And yet — thanks to Lillard, naturally — the Blazers were able to beat the Jazz, one of the hottest teams in the league as the season progressed.

Lillard scored 36 points on 13/25 shooting, and he added 10 assists.

Everybody else on the Blazers? Meh.

McCollum scored 19 points on 8/18 field goals. Nurkic scored 13 points, grabbed nine rebounds and blocked four shots. Nobody else on the roster scored more than nine points.

Portland finished the season at 49-33.

Future

Where will Portland go from here? It’s not unreasonable to expect 50 wins in the 2018-2019 season. The Trail Blazers probably should have won that many games this season, anyway.

Next: Best of the Season, Part XIX: Blazers clinch playoffs

But — at the risk of repeating what I’ve already repeated — the Blazers need help. And they’ll probably have to do it much the same squad they had this season.

Will they improve enough to win more than 50 games and advance to the second round of the playoffs? Will they get any help in the draft?

And which games will we recap this time next year when we release a new “Best of the Season” list?

Stay tuned. The RCP will be here with you the whole way.