Portland Trail Blazers: ESPN ranks Damian Lillard No. 11 on bubble player ranking

When ESPN predicted who would be the best players in the Orlando bubble, Portland Trail Blazer superstar Damian Lillard was outside the top-10. How justifiable is that?

Ask any rational fan on this side of Houston or Oklahoma City to name ten players with a better 2019-20 résumé than Damian Lillard, and they’re likely to stop you mid-sentence.

In their recent predicting of the top 50 players in the Orlando bubble, ESPN made it through 219 sentences — and yes, I counted — the most discussion-worthy of which coming in Lillard’s No. 11 rank.

The list itself was created by six of the NBA’s most respected journalists. The thinking behind keeping Lillard outside of the top-10 came due to Portland’s postseason hopes being on the rocks. That much as obvious, given this description from Kevin Pelton:

"“Lillard is the only player in the top 22 who’s not certain to advance to the playoffs, a testament to his individual brilliance this season. Lillard averaged a career-high 28.9 PPG while also posting the best true shooting percentage (61.9%) of his career, which makes the Blazers a scary playoff foe.”"

The only personal comparison I had with this ranking is that ESPN doesn’t seem to be lacking in faith that the healthy Portland Trail Blazers will gain the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. They have two players ranked higher than any of Memphis’ players.

Lillard was ranked higher than any New Orleans Pelican, Sacramento King, San Antonio Spur or Phoenix Sun. CJ McCollum was nearly in the same boat.

McCollum made a cameo at No. 27, a slight drop-off from his No. 13 ranking to begin the season. Kirk Goldsberry offered this assessment of him:

"“When Portland played its biggest game of the year last season, McCollum was the best player on the court — scoring 37 points, putting on a midrange clinic and propelling the Blazers past the Nuggets in a huge Game 7 road win. He needs to bring that same heat to Orlando if Portland has any chance of sneaking into the playoffs. Both he and Damian Lillard have made careers out of proving people wrong. Can they do it again in the bubble?”"

Should Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum find a way to lead the Blazers back to the Playoffs, flirting with the question of where Lillard stands in the MVP race doesn’t feel overambitious. If that day comes, perhaps this No. 11 spot will be another “wood on the fire” example in the 5-time All-Star’s career.