To win with Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers must embrace the youth

The 2022 NBA offseason probably hasn’t gone the way most fans expected for the Portland Trail Blazers. Aside from bringing in Damian Lillard‘s friend and preferred running mate, Jerami Grant, all of the other moves that new General Manager Joe Cronin made come with plenty of question marks.

Some of the choices made it clear that the franchise is still determined to build around Damian Lillard and try to bring a title to Rip City with him leading the charge. Re-signing one of his most trusted confidants and long-time pick-and-roll partner in Jusuf Nurkic to a handsome four-year, $70 million contract was certainly an indicator that the team wants to compete in the upcoming season. It’s reasonable to assume that appeasing Dame was part of the reason why the Trail Blazers made Nurk the 11th-highest paid center in terms of yearly average, despite his production perhaps not warranting such a pretty penny.

Other moves, though, seemed to keep one eye on the future, for the post-Dame era. Spending the seventh-overall pick that they trudged through a miserable tank in 2021-2022 for on Shaedon Sharpe — a score-first guard who hasn’t played competitive basketball for over a year — gave some the impression that the Blazers were already adding insurance for when Lillard leaves the team, either in retirement or trade.

To win with Damian Lillard, the Portland Trail Blazers need to set focus down the road

Despite the mixed signals from the front office, Dame had to believe that they did at least enough to earn some level of commitment from him, as he agreed to a two-year extension that will make him one of the highest-paid athletes in NBA history. Of course, in the era of player empowerment, a long-term contract is virtually meaningless should an All-Star decide that he desires to suit up for another team and is willing to fight for it.

If it’s to be assumed that Lillard was content with the steps the franchise took this offseason, though, then it might also be safe to assume that he understands that this team isn’t built to contend next season. Even with Jerami Grant in town, Nurkic re-upped, and free agent acquisition Gary Payton II on board, the Trail Blazers don’t stack up against the rest of the Western Conference. From a pure talent standpoint, Portland projects to be competing for the final guaranteed playoff spot come late spring.

If that’s the case, the question then becomes whether or not the Trail Blazers should fight tooth and nail to drag themselves into the postseason. If Portland is playing for next season, it’d be logical to see them exhaust every option to try to land the sixth seed or battle their way through the Play-In Tournament to secure one of the last two playoff spots.

That means playing all of the veterans and perhaps even making a midseason deal to bring in some additional assistance for Damian Lillard and company.

But there’s another route that the Blazers can take, one that frees them of their great expectations and leaves room for improvement, allows them to positively surprise both fans and pundits, and could ultimately pay dividends down the road.