thelesterlee
For 8 years, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum battled in the Western Conference and every single one of those seasons ended with the Western Conference beating their asses. As was tradition. But it’s all over after the Portland Trailblazers made a trade with the team ahead of them in the standings which is always a good sign.
Full trade, per sources:
Blazers: Josh Hart, Tomas Satoransky, Nickeil Walker-Alexander, Didi Louzada, 2022 protected first-round pick, two second-round picks.
Pelicans: CJ McCollum, Larry Nance, Tony Snell.— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 8, 2022
Oh.
Year after year, Lillard and McCollum convinced themselves they were one piece away from the title. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson stuffed them in their lockers and took their lunch money every season but that never stopped this Blazers backcourt from doing their little morning affirmations and self-actualization meditations to give themselves the false confidence they needed to go out there and get their asses beat once again.
The Portland Trailblazers made the playoffs every season since officially forming the Wack Brothers in 2015. They lost in the first round 4 out of those 6 times. They were swept 2 of those 4 first-round exits and had a cute 5-game series against the Lakers once so we’ll just count that as a sweep as well.
Every offseason, the entire NBA world wanted Portland to break up their undersized backcourt known for easily scoring 60 points together and just as easily allowing the opposing backcourt to drop 80 on their heads. Set one screen on CJ McCollum and your offense has a 5-on-4 advantage for the remainder of the possession.
This breakup was inevitable but the Blazers waited for too long to pull the trigger on this. Almost all of CJ McCollum’s stats have dropped this season. Look at the return they got back for him. Josh Hart and Tomas Satoransky. Sick.
But don’t think this means Portland is tanking. Damian Lillard has, for absolutely no discernable reason, decided he wants to stay in Portland forever because of loyalty or some shit. He wants to have the same legacy as Tim Duncan or Kobe Bryant or Dirk Nowitzki but he’s more on the Nick Collison, Udonis Haslem level.
Enjoy the free Wendy’s or whatever the perks of that loyalty are. Dame Lillard is the type of guy to turn down millions for a dinner with Jay-Z because the knowledge he gets from that dinner will make him billions. Man wakes up every morning watching Gary V entrepreneur videos. We all have the same 24 hours.
I will never forget Kevin Durant going on CJ McCollum’s podcast after the Warriors acquired Boogie Cousins. Everyone freaked out about Golden State acquiring another All-Star including McCollum. Durant pretty much told him not to worry about what Golden State is doing because the Blazers aren’t even close.
That’s what the NBA players thought of Portland. A cute regular-season team with no chance of winning any titles.
Good luck to McCollum down in the Bayou. The good news is, Zion’s block numbers are going to skyrocket having to always meet guards at the rim when CJ gets beat off the dribble 50 times a night.
