New look Blazers not good enough for championship

Posted December 2020

By Taj O'Malley

Staff Editor

After the shortest offseason in its history, the NBA is set to return on Dec. 22. Short as the offseason may have been, the Portland Trail Blazers’ front office made quick work, putting together the best basketball team Portland has seen since the early 2000s. However, great as this team may be on paper, the competitive Western Conference will have Portland fans shot with disappointment once again come playoff time.

In the creation of this column, I pondered the illustrious ways I could introduce the struggles that Portland is sure to face on its quest for the franchise's first championship since 1977. My pondering found itself unable to create such an introduction, because the thing holding the Trail Blazers, and all other teams, back from an NBA championship can be easily described by the mere stating of his name. Who is this player that crushes both the title hopes of his opponents, as well as my own hopes to better describe the challenges on the Blazers’ road to the NBA Finals? Anthony Davis.

I could leave my column with the same breath that I breathe as I say his name, because his existence on the Lakers is the sole reason that the Blazers will not be able to win a championship this season. Why do I value a player who has never won MVP so high? I value Sir Davis so much, because he is unguardable when he has the ball, and scoring on him when you have the ball is almost as rare as him not scoring on you.

Davis’s statline reads like a horror movie for opposing teams, last season he averaged 26.1 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 2.3 blocks, and 1.5 steals, all while shooting 54% from the field. Scary as said statline may be, Davis finds a way to raise his ability to induce fear when he plays the Portland Trail Blazers.

In the first round of the 2018 NBA playoffs, the Blazers liked where they were in the Western Conference standings as a 3-seed. All the Damian Lillard led team had to do was beat the New Orleans Pelicans to advance to the next round, and I liked our chances. Anthony Davis had other plans, though. The unibrow-rocking big man would lead the Pelicans to a 4-game sweep of our local Blazers, averaging 33 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 blocks while doing so.

Then, just last August, Davis averaged 30 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1.6 blocks against the Blazers in the first round of the NBA playoffs in a series that the Lakers won 4-1.

Maybe I am being dramatic. As good as he is, Anthony Davis is just one man. It's not like the Lakers have paired Sir Davis with Lebron James or anything.

Anthony Davis is easily the best teammate Lebron has ever had, and you could even argue that Davis is better than Lebron. Evidence of this tandem being so hard to stop can be seen with a brief examination of last year's playoffs. The thing that impresses me the most about this Laker team is that they faced 4 very different teams in last year’s playoffs, and each of teams ran completely different offensive and defensive schemes, meaning that the Lakers would have to adjust their game plan every series, and they did this very successfully.

Last season the Blazers had the third best offense in the NBA, but one of the worst defenses. Blazers’ GM Neil Olshey did a good job recognizing this flaw, making great free agency additions that will boost the Blazers’ defense. Robert Covington, Derrick Jones, and Harry Giles are great defenders who surely make things more difficult for AD and Lebron, but will not be enough to stop one the best duos in NBA history.

This year, I see the Blazers having a great regular season, earning us the two or three seed in the Western Conference. Dame and CJ will continue to dominate the offensive side of the ball night in and night out, especially with the help of Carmelo Anthony and Jusuf Nurkic, two proven offensive talents.

When playoff time comes, I am confident that the Blazers will make an appearance in the second round, but from then on we will need some Rip City miracles to continue advancing, despite the great team Neil Olshey has put together.