The End of Rip City

It’s a good thing the streaming service Dame peddles has live sports, since he gets to use it every year when he gets sent home early yet again. Portland fell to the number one seeded Lakers in five after scrapping their way into the playoffs. And while Dame did have an impressive string of games to carry the Blazers into the playoffs, if there wasn’t a stoppage in play Portland wouldn’t have made it.

On paper the Blazers look like a strong team led by Lillard, who has blossomed into a top ten player, yet they’ve only made it past the first round twice with their current star tandem. They’ve tried to add in different pieces, whether it be Rodney Hood, Hassan Whiteside or Seth Curry, none of them can get Portland over the hump. With CJ about to turn 29 and Dame just turning 30, is it time to blow it up in Rip City? Lillard’s Supermax kicks in in 2021 and for someone who has underperformed in the playoffs they should seriously look at blowing it up instead of running it back yet again.

Now the Blazers did make the conference finals in 2019 but how impressive was that run really? The 4-1 beat down of OKC capped off with Dame’s series winner seems impressive. But looking at the stats the Thunder’s second best player, Russell Westrbook, shot 36% from the floor while shooting more than PG who was in the midst of his best season yet. This wasn’t a special series by any means especially considering OKC was the six seed and the Blazers were the three. The second round saw the Blazers beat an extremely inexperienced Nuggets team in seven. This may seem impressive but the Nuggets choked away a 3-2 lead and it wasn’t Dame that took over game seven for Portland, or even lead them in scoring that series, no that was CJ McCollum. Dame shot 41% from the field and 28% from deep against Denver, not horrific, but also great. But notably in game 7 Dame wasn’t the one who took over, it was CJ. Dame shot 17% from the field that game and got 13 points, while CJ stepped up and dropped 37, including the dagger over Torey Craig as Portland won by four. Then in the Conference Finals against a battered Warriors team, they got rocked and lost in four. The conference finals is supposed to be the best two teams in that conference, not someone that got lucky. Since 2001 there have only been three teams that got swept in the Western Conference Finals, the 2013 Grizzlies, the 2017 Spurs, and the 2019 Blazers. The Spurs don’t really belong here and are here solely due to Kawhi’s injury in game one, had that not happened the series wouldn’t have been a sweep. That Grizzlies team made it had no right to be there and somehow strung together an amazing run of games before getting dominated by the Spurs. Then the 2019 Blazers, another team that didn’t belong there and the Warriors showed them that. 

Breaking down each one of Portland’s playoff runs wouldn’t be helpful and would just waste time. Quickly running through them though they are highlighted by an upset loss to Memphis, a sweep by Golden State and an upset sweep to a Pelicans team so woeful their star player would leave the next summer. To recap, the best thing the Blazers have done with Lillard was get swept in the conference finals. Judging by the way the west is shaping up in the coming years, one has to question if the Blazers will even make the playoffs considering they almost didn't this year. Especially considering the teams that barely missed out this year like the Pelicans, Suns, Grizzlies and oh yeah the Warriors, will all want in next year. This year as well should be especially disappointing as The Bubble favors teams with good shooters, yet they lost in five to LA. Now Dame did get injured and no one expected Portland to win the series but it should be disappointing to only get one game. 

Blowing up Rip City is not an easy decision by any means, but there are some reasons why now is the best time to do so. This draft class is seriously lacking in top end talent meaning teams looking to rebuild or add on will look elsewhere for star players. This free agent class as well isn’t anything special unless teams want to overpay for mediocre talent. Contenders like the Sixers are looking to make moves this offseason as well as lower tier playoff teams like the Magic who are looking for the thing to put them over the edge. Portland has good young pieces Like Anfernee Simons, Gary Trent Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic so they could look to trade one or both of their stars in an effort to get younger. Plus it would be easier to move Lillard now rather than later as there are few teams who are going to want to take on the Supermax should they choose to blow it up then.

One possible trade I considered for them would be trading CJ McCollum for Ben Simmons. Now with the departure of Bret Brown there is a lot of talk that Simmons will be moved for someone who can stretch the floor. McCollum gives them that as well as some playmaking and shot creation, another thing the Sixers lacked last year. Putting Simmons on the Blazers gives Dame (no disrespect to CJ here) a legit All Star second option that could raise their ceiling. It also means Simmons would be moved back to the four spot, meaning he can spend more time attacking the paint and won’t have to play on the perimeter as much where his lack of an outside shot really hurts him. Moving Simmons to the four limits his weakness and would still allow him to be a secondary playmaker. I know earlier I cited that CJ was the reason for their limited postseason success but it will be harder to move Dame and would be far more controversial to fans that they want to trade their franchise’s greatest player. 

If they make that trade and want to fill a void at the two guard they could trust Anfernee Simons to move up to a starting role or try their luck in the draft, but their best option would be going after someone like Malik Beasley in free agency. He’s a very under the radar free agent due to only getting a starting spot after being moved mid season. He’s shown in both a limited and a starting role to be a great shooter and is a decent defender. Beasley plays well off and on ball and just knows how to get buckets. He would be a perfect complimentary piece for this Blazer’s team. This is of course assuming he’s still in the league next year following some off the court issues. 

Portland had a good run. They were a fun team to watch that had one of the most entertaining players in the league. But they’ve peaked. They’re a consistent payoff team but lack what's needed to bring home the title. If the front office is ok with this then they should keep this team, but if they are serious about competing for a title they need to change.