Heading into the offseason, the Portland Trail Blazers will be under pressure to add another difference-maker next to Damian Lillard. Who could they target?
A little more than a year ago, the Portland Trail Blazers made the conscious decision that it was going to retool around Damian Lillard. The team started off that decision by trading C.J. McCollum to the New Orleans Pelicans at last year’s NBA Trade Deadline. They carried that decision into the offseason by acquiring Jerami Grant from the Detroit Pistons.
Despite their efforts, it’s hard to look back at those two big decisions that the Blazers made and view them as successful. This is not to say that the Blazers were wrong in both those moves but there is still of work that needs to be done to prove otherwise.
With just a few regular season games left, the Blazers are practically eliminated from playoff contention and will be selecting in the top 10 of the 2023 NBA Draft. In short, their efforts to retool around Lillard have fallen short.
Damian Lillard is not interested in a rebuild
In his words, Lillard is not interested in a rebuild. That’s not what he plans on doing at this point in his career. If that is indeed accurate, and the Blazers want to keep Lillard on the roster, this is a team that is almost definitely going to have to target a star. If they want to keep Lillard happy, they need to figure out a way how to acquire one during the offseason.
Assuming that acquiring a star will be at the top of Portland’s to-do list heading into the offseason, we explore four top targets that would be good fits next to Lillard.