Portland Trail Blazers: Why invest long-term in an underachieving backcourt?

The Portland Trail Blazers have invested long-term in both Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, but is it a smart move?

Investing is great from a financial standpoint. You see something small that has potential and you take a risk putting some money in it. Investing in growing assets that long-term from now will make you look like a genius.

Moves made by front offices in the NBA encapsulate the sports side of investing. The front office sees a young player, watches the progress, and then at the end of the contract, they have the decision whether if they want to move forward with that young player.

On the flip side, there are bad investments that can be made with young players (ex. Andrew Wiggins). The assumption is that the player progression by year 6-8 ends up with some sort of positive outcome. There have also been bad investments towards the pairing of two All-Star or near-level production guards. Excluding the outlier of Golden State Warriors‘ backcourt pairing of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, there have been no backcourt duos that have been NBA champions.

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Over the last few years we have seen the assembling of backcourt duos in Russell Westbrook and Victor Oladipo, Chris Paul and James Harden, and Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. Each of them not fulfilling the expected result. Underperforming in playoffs or chemistry issues arising there was a consistent denominator… backcourts in the modern NBA cannot win you a championship.

This is a wing/2-way player league (ex. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Giannis Antetokounmpo) and to a smaller degree, there needs to be a stretch big man. Guards who are the primary scoring options also tend to burnout come playoff time.

With all that being said, why did Portland just give CJ McCollum a three-year, $100 million contract extension?

Don’t get it twisted, this is not one of the “how did he get that much money” or “what has he done” type contracts. More of the Portland Trail Blazers investing basically the next 5-6 years in a good but not championship worthy duo of Damian Lillard and McCollum.

Lillard himself just got the supermax with an extension of four-years, $196 million. Yes, they are both 20-plus points per game scorers but they’ve had minimal playoff success. Finally making it to the Western Conference Finals this past season, losing in a sweep to the Warriors.

Lillard and McCollum are both feel good/underdog stories. They both came from small mid-major colleges (Lillard-Weber State, McCollum-Lehigh). Ever since McCollum got drafted in 2013, the year after Lillard, the Trail Blazers have not missed the playoffs. They are arguably the best backcourt duo [after Curry and Thompson]. The regular-season success has been there with 3/6 50-plus win seasons since 2013. There was even the notion that they overachieved last year en route to 53 wins and the third seed in a loaded Western Conference.

Besides from the Lillard-McCollum tandem, who has the Trail Blazers’ front office surrounded them with? LaMarcus Aldridge, one of the best Portland players in the recent era, bolted town after the 2014-15 season to the San Antonio Spurs. Constantly overpaying players like Allen Crabbe, Evan Turner, Meyers Leonard. The Trail Blazers are No. 1 in team payroll in the entire league. Lillard and McCollum are going to need more than their 45-plus point per game to compete against the heavyweights in the West.

Lillard and McCollum happen to be relatively short, each listed around 6-foot-3 190-plus lbs. They have been pretty durable as far as their career pertains but they are both main options so it is very risky paying each max-level money when they are 30-plus years of age.

Their playing styles aren’t very sustainable long-term in terms of body health based off of similar guards that played in the league. As noted before it takes a wing/2-way player to push your team over the top.

Best case scenario they can pry a star player that fits that mold from another team in a trade. Plan B could see 2019 draft pick Nassir Little, a small-forward, be thrown into the starting lineup and see if he is the lottery-type player he was projected to be. Plan C could be a trade for a stretch big like Kevin Love or hear me out… Pascal Siakam. It is not a farfetched idea but it will take away a lot of depth on the team for either one.

Looking at the recent contracts awarded to Portland’s star backcourt raises some eyebrows as they proved ineffective in the playoffs and the money given sets them back futuristically cap-wise. This was a questionable investment by the Trail Blazer’s front office when recent history says a backcourt duo is not winning you an NBA championship.

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Maybe injuries occur elsewhere like last season and they find themselves reaching greater heights. Maybe they make a trade to out them over the top. We will see but history is against the Portland Trail Blazers.

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