Portland Trail Blazers season preview: Can Damian Lillard win the MVP?

In the 2020 season, Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard was one of the two or three best players in the league. Can he lift the MVP trophy in 2021?

Damian Lillard was on a whole different level in the 2019/20 season. The Portland Trail Blazers centerpiece showed that he had a level that probably only a few knew he had in him. With injury issues up and down the roster, Lillard put the team on his back and had his best NBA season to date.

Very rarely does an NBA player have his best season at age 30, especially when his team is missing three starters. Lillard not only had his best scoring season but also had his most efficient season. He went away after the 2018 and 2019 playoffs, and improved his game.

Now firmly playing at a top five level, Dame has a chance to hoist the MVP trophy if he can play at a similar level to last year.

In two distinct parts of the season in 2020, Lillard was the best player in the league. In the seeding games in the NBA bubble, and for a one month stretch across January and February, he was the best player in the league.

An injury around the all-star break took some of the weight out of his MVP case, but the credit was there from across the league. Averaging around 40 points on some of the best efficiency in the league, he had one of the greatest seasons in Blazer history.

When we touch on last season and then focus on 2021, Dame can firmly be in the MVP conversation.

Here are his stats and the team’s record in the 2019/20 season.

30.0 points / 4.3 rebounds / 8.0 assists / 1.1 steals  / 0.3 blocks

46.3 percent from field / 40.1 percent from three / 52.4 percent from two / 88.8 percent from the line

Team record

35 – 39

These are, without a doubt, MVP numbers. The team record was the main reason he was marked down last year to an 8th place MVP finish even though he finished 6th and 4th in previous years with worse individual numbers.

The team record is a massive part of MVP voting. I expect the Blazers to win the equivalent of 46 wins this season, which would be 40 or 41 games in this shortened 72 game season.

The main reasoning behind Dame having a better season than last year is that he can take slightly fewer shots and shoulder less of the offensive load. With significantly more depth at the two through four, he can rest more on defense and play a little more off-ball.

He can play slightly fewer minutes and hopefully see his Blazer team beat the easier teams in the league, meaning he can hit the bench earlier. The 2021 season will be significantly different to 2020, as the Blazers will likely have 10 proper NBA rotation players instead of the five or six they had last season.

Dame is firmly in his prime, but he has been paired with true two-way players for the first time in his prime. Gary Trent Jr., Robert Covington, Jusuf Nurkic, and a developing Derrick Jones Jr.

With the combination of a fit McCollum and Nurkic alongside young two-way dynamos in Jones and Trent, Lillard has maybe the best supporting cast he has had in his eight years.

With the chances of a near 50-win pace with this squad, Dame could lift his first MVP trophy in 2021.

Giannis likely won’t win a third, which leaves just Steph Curry and Luka Doncic as superstars who don’t have another star teammate alongside to dampen their statistical production. I expect Lillard to make first-team All-NBA and top-five MVP voting regardless.

The rest is up to his teammates and the record that they can help propel the team to.