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The Portland Trail Blazers lost four of last season’s opening night starters in the offseason, severely lowering the expectations of a franchise once thought to be a serious championship contender. Damian Lillard was prepared to take over as the sole face of the franchise, but instead he’s had help from breakout star, third-year shooting guard C.J. McCollum.
Portland’s offense revolves around their backcourt. That’s not just a saying in this case, it really does. Lillard is one of the best point guards in the game and prefers to have the ball in his hands as much as possible, as does McCollum. Playing two ball-dominant guards at the same time and making it work is even more impressive for both players, who rank towards the top of the league in possession and touches.
Lillard is fifth in touches (90.9 PG), first in time of possession (8.2 MPG) and sixth in usage percentage (31.4 percent), while McCollum is 27th in touches (74.2 PG) and TOP (5.3 MPG) and 23rd in usage percentage (26.5 percent), per NBA Stats. No other Portland player comes close in any category. Lillard has been criticized for his carelessness with the ball, more precisely his high rate of turnovers (3.7 PG) and low field goal percentage (41.7 percent). However, that’s just a byproduct of Lillard’s aggressive style.
He doesn’t just dribble the ball around the perimeter, Lillard attacks the rim at all costs. Every team needs a player like him to win, and a rebuilding team like the Trail Blazers are lucky to have a guy of Lillard’s caliber. Lillard is 10th in drives per game (9.9) and third in points on drives (7.4) while shooting 46 percent on these plays. Unlike Lillard, McCollum is more of a shooter.
The shooting guard is second in PPG on pull-up jump shots (9.0) behind just Stephen Curry, shooting 45.2 percent on pull-ups, in comparison to Lillard shooting just 36.8 percent on the same plays. As usual, though, Lillard comes through with production scoring eight points a night despite his predictable inefficiency. As you can imagine, both players are prominent when it comes to isolation plays and pick and rolls.
Lillard is second on these plays in points scored while the ball handler (9.5) and McCollum is seventh (7.2), with both players shooting over 40 percent on one of the league’s most important plays. Meanwhile, Lillard is fourth in points per game on iso plays (4.2) and McCollum is 18th (2.3). As important as their individual statistics are, they have had just as great on impact on their team.
Portland plays their worst offense with their star point guard off the floor — a lowly OFF rating of 99.9 — but his porous defense causes his team to put out their best DEFF rating when he is off the floor. Both McCollum and Lillard have a long way to go in shoring up their defensive game, but when they get there the two of them will be in consideration for the league’s best backcourt.
Right now, however, they are just 17-24, and lucky to be the No. 9 seed in the underachieving Western Conference. Without much to count on outside of their big two, the chances Portland has of making the playoffs are slim, but what they have done up until this point is no small feat regardless. The Trail Blazers were predicted to finish as one of the bottom teams in the league, so they must be happy with their progress during this massive rebuilding effort.
Grade: C+
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