The Oregonian/OregonLive is taking a player-by-player look at the Portland Trail Blazers roster heading into the offseason.
Other posts: Anfernee Simons; Jusuf Nurkic; Josh Hart; Nassir Little; Justise Winslow; Trendon Watford; Greg Brown III; Keon Johnson; CJ Elleby; Brandon Williams; Ben McLemore; Drew Eubanks; Elijah Hughes; Keljin Blevins; DiDi Louzada; Joe Ingles; Eric Bledsoe; Reggie Perry; Kris Dunn.
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Today: Damian Lillard, 31, 6-2, point guard.
Contract status: Lillard, who has three years remaining on his current contract, made $39.3 million last season and is scheduled to make $42.5 million next season. Lillard, who turns 32 in July, is up for a two-year extension that would pay him $107 million. The deadline for Lillard to sign an extension is June 30.
Likelihood to return: Lillard, over and over and over again, has made it clear that he wants to remain in Portland. He has said he is on board with the retooling of the roster and that he trusts new general manager Joe Cronin and coach Chauncey Billups. For those reasons, it’s doubtful anything would happen this summer to cause the team to trade Lillard or for him to demand a trade.
2021-22 contributions: Lillard suffered the worst season of his career. He began slowly and never could take flight. An abdominal injury he played through in recent years hurt him worse than ever and, ultimately, led to core surgery in January, when he was shut down for the season.
Lillard averaged 24.0 points per game in a career-low 29 appearances. His scoring average was his lowest since 2015-16 (21.0). His previous low in appearances was 66 games in 2019-20, when the season was reduced to 74 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lillard played in 67 out of 72 games in 2020-21.
The scoring dip from 28.8 per game the previous season was a direct result of the worst shooting season of his career. Lillard shot career-lows in both field-goal attempts (40.2%) and three-point attempts (32.4%). His previous lows were 41.9% and 34.3%, both coming during the 2014-15 season.
Strengths/weaknesses: By now, it’s no mystery what Lillard is great at (everything on offense) and at times weak at (defense).
But, to his credit, Lillard did show improvement on defense under first-year coach Chauncey Billups, who challenged his star to take that end of the court seriously. Nobody is going to mistake Lillard for a defensive stopper, especially since he gives up height and length to many of the players he must defend. But increased effort goes a long way and it was evident that Lillard put in the work before the abdominal injury began to increasingly hinder his movement.
Expected to be healthy next season, Lillard will need to continue to improve on defense in order to help the Blazers succeed.
2022-23 outlook: Since rehabilitating his injury, Lillard has repeatedly stated that he feels healthier than he has in several years.
Based on the timeline of the recovery from his surgery, Lillard could have played late last season. But the team elected to avoid any potential of an additional injury as it sank in the standings.
The Blazers organization was determined to shed salary (traded away were CJ McCollum, Norman Powell and others) and swan dive into a top 10 pick. Also, the Blazers and Lillard sought time away from the game to rejuvenate him mentally and physically.
A rested, healthy and motivated Lillard should have no problem rediscovering the MVP-candidate form he displayed in 2020-21.
However, in an ideal world, the Blazers won’t need Lillard to produce like an MVP as often. Billups had hoped to reduce Lillard’s minutes last season. Instead, he played 36.4 per game, more than he did the previous season (35.8).
Should the Blazers dramatically improve the roster this summer, and Anfernee Simons continues his upward trajectory, Lillard shouldn’t have to carry as much of the offensive burden as he has in the past. He could play fewer minutes, reduce injury risk and thus be fresher late in games and in the playoffs.
Any chance the Blazers have of making the playoffs and winning a playoff series rests with Lillard’s health. Now that he is about to turn 32, and has already put a lot of miles on his body, taking necessary measures to keep him at peak physical condition must be a priority moving forward.
-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook).
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