Ranking the 5 worst Blazers starters of the Damian Lillard era

The No. 6 overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, Weber State point guard Damian Lillard hit the ground running with the Portland Trail Blazers, starting all 82 games and winning Rookie of the Year honors. Lillard had 11 highly productive seasons in Portland, resulting in a spot on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. He's arguably the best to ever wear a Blazers jersey as the franchise's leading scorer, with 19,376 points accumulated throughout those 11 years.

Despite Dame's success, he only made one Western Conference Finals appearance in his career with the Blazers in 2019. Many remember the legendary "bad shot" that Lillard made from the logo in the first round against Paul George and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

However, despite being one of the best point guards of the past decade, Lillard has yet to even crack the Finals. The main reason why Lillard eventually requested to leave Portland is the lack of talent surrounding him on the roster.

Note: The criteria to be considered as part of this ranking was that the players had to have been in the starting lineup combination that played the most games that season.

5. Robin Lopez, 2014-15

Robin Lopez started with the Blazers for two seasons, but his worst year in Portland was the 2014-15 season. That year, the Stanford big man averaged 9.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game. He was a solid rim protector at 7-foot-1 and had 1.4 blocks per game that year, so Lopez isn't ranked worse on this list.

To his credit, Lopez was a serviceable role player who impacted winning in ways that wouldn't appear on the box score. Still, you'd like to see a starting center get closer to ten rebounds per game.

Lopez left the Blazers after that season and somehow managed to land a four-year, $54 million deal with the New York Knicks in free agency.