Jude Magnotti
EE Sports Columnist ‘26
There are many debatable things in the NBA; the impact of Damian Lillard is not one of them. Now at 32 years old, Lillard is putting together the best season of his illustrious career so far.
Just to recap, throughout this year alone, Lillard has become the Blazers all-time leading scorer, averaged 33 points and 7 assists a night, led the Blazers to a 60% winning percentage when he has 30 or more points, and most recently scored a jaw dropping 71 points in only 39 minutes against the Houston Rockets.
He made the All-Star team and is an All-NBA selection lock. However, despite Dames massive production the Trail Blazers sit at 29-33 only good enough for twelveth in the West and two games out of the play-in.
How can one player produce such mind boggling numbers and still not have his team even in the playoffs? Well there are a few things that contribute to the Blazers lack of winning; the number one factor being defense.
The blazers have had a potent offense this year putting up well over a 100 points per game, but their defense is not quite as good. They are still in the bottom tier of teams allowing more than a 115 points a night to all types of teams. Some of this blame goes on to Dame as he is not the best on the defensive side of the ball. However, this problem stems from their lack of size. Their average size standing at a measly 6 foot 6 is the second shortest in the league behind the Miami Heat at 6 foot 5.
Size does matter and Blazer defenders are often simply shot over or ignored entirely due to the massive height difference. If the Blazers want to even have a chance at getting into the playoff picture they will need the return of Bosnian 7-footer Jusuf Nurkic who has been injured for the past month.
Nurkic provides a valuable defensive and rebounding presence that the Blazers have desperately missed these past few weeks. But look past just this year with all the losing and mismanagement within the organization: what does Dames future in Portland even look like?
Damian Lillard is know for being an extremely loyal player, but to put up the numbers he does and still lose, begs the question if he’d considered asking for a trade in the future. Ironically, his loyalty is his own detriment. He’s getting up in age and the chances of Portland contending are closing fast if he does not leave.
I believe that if Dame wants any sort of shot making a run in Portland he will have to convince the front office to go all in. They must either draft or acquire another superstar to play alongside Lillard. And with the team already overpaying for role players, this will make that task that much harder.
If things keep going as they are right now and Dame never wins, his legacy will be a lot different then he would like it. He would still be known as an extremely good player, but like other legends, such as Gilbert Arenas and Tracy McGrady, he will never get the respect he deserves because of that lack of a ring.
Will Lillard’s loyalty be his downfall? Only time will tell. But only one thing will ever be certain: Dame D.O.L.L.A. will forever go down as an NBA great.