The Portland Trail Blazers wasted no time making changes once their offseason began following a first-round elimination in the NBA playoffs at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. Hours after the defeat, Terry Stotts and the organization parted ways.
Chauncey Billups was hired as his replacement and will be tasked with getting the Trail Blazers over the hump. The team has made the postseason eight consecutive years but has been eliminated in the first round five of those eight years, including four out of the last five.
Portland has an All-NBA performer in Damian Lillard, but they have failed to surround him with the help to take this team to the next level. Lillard is a star, but even the best players need some help to win when it counts.
He and CJ McCollum make for a dynamic duo in the backcourt, but they are carrying a lot of the load by themselves. Hopefully, a full season of Norman Powell in the lineup will help them improve defensively. Defense is their biggest weakness, as they had the second-worst defensive rating in the NBA last season.
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Coming into the offseason, there were a lot of rumors about McCollum being on the move. For Portland to get to the next level, breaking up the Lillard/McCollum backcourt to balance out the roster could be the best way to go about it.
What if they upgraded on McCollum with a player such as Bradley Beal? Let’s take a look at a hypothetical trade between the Trail Blazers and Washington Wizards that would create a superstar backcourt in Damian Lillard and Bradley Beal.
