Ranking the 10 Worst Trail Blazers starters of the Damian Lillard era

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Jake Layman was one of the worst Blazers starters of the Damian Lillard era.

Jake Layman, Portland Trail Blazers (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images) /

7. Jake Layman, 2018-19 season

Name the legitimate rotation members of the only Lillard-led team to make the Western Conference Finals. Jake Layman probably isn’t one of the first to swim to the front of your mind.

Layman started 33 games for that Portland team, the only player outside of the usual starting five of Lillard, CJ McCollum, Maurice Harkless, Al-Farouq Aminu and Jusuf Nurkic to start more than eight times. The 6-foot-8 forward averaged 7.6 points and 3.1 rebounds in 18.7 minutes with 51/33/70 shooting splits.

He didn’t blow the roof off by any means, but the former Maryland standout was a fairly useful player when he was on the floor for Portland. He was third on the team in offensive rating for anyone who played more than 900 minutes and was fourth in defensive rating.

He was sixth on Lillard’s best Blazers team with 3.1 win shares, proving to be a solid player who did his job when called upon, even if he didn’t really belong in any NBA starting lineup.

Portland traded Layman to Minnesota the next season. He played three years with the Timberwolves and then faded out of the NBA.