Damian Lillard Thinks Blazers Could Have Won Title Had Free Agent Not Departed

Does he make a salient point?

Mar 22, 2023; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) goes to the basket against the Utah Jazz in the second quarter at Vivint Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports / Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports

Last summer, former All-NBA Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard finally demanded to be traded to a contender after spending two straight seasons in the lottery-bound gutter with the club. He landed with the Milwaukee Bucks, where the now-34-year-old clearly became the second fiddle to All-NBA power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. The duo helped the team survive a midseason head coach firing and earn the Eastern Conference's No. 3 seed with a good-not-great 49-33 record, but fell in a six-game series to the Indiana Pacers as both Antetokounmpo and Lillard missed multiple games with injuries.

Appearing on former Bucks champion and one-time Atlanta Hawks All-Star point guard Jeff Teague's essential podcast "Club 520," Lillard revealed that he believes he could have won a championship during his tenure in Portland — had All-NBA power forward/center LaMarcus Aldridge not departed in 2016 free agency for the San Antonio Spurs. The club, led by Aldridge and All-NBA swingman Kawhi Leonard, won 67 contests and advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 2017.

"One of the more underrated players," Lillard said of Aldridge. "Being in a pick-and-roll with him, he's popping, he's making every jumper. I'm throwing it to him on the block, [opposing teams are] going to get him, I'm standing there by myself."

Lillard then went on to make a bold proclamation about the team's upside with himself and Aldridge.

“If [Aldridge] would have never went to San Antonio, we would have won at least once already," Lillard reflected. "I would have [come] into my own but he was that good.”

That's a bold claim considering how loaded the Western Conference was during the rest of Aldridge's prime. That same summer, 14-time All-Star power forward Kevin Durant, one of the greatest and most complete all-around scorers in the history of the league, linked up with the NBA's all-time best 3-point shooter, 10-time All-Star point guard Stephen Curry, plus two other future Hall of Famers in Klay Thompson and Draymond Green on the Golden State Warriors, and promptly went to three straight NBA Finals.

In 2020, following Durant's departure, All-NBA superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis teamed up on a 3-and-D heavy Los Angeles Lakers team, surviving the Miami Heat en route to their lone title together (so far). The West's representatives in the subsequent two seasons, the 2021 Phoenix Suns and a 2022 Warriors team without Durant, were certainly more beatable, but by then Aldridge was past his All-Star prime. He retired on the Brooklyn Nets (where he was at last teammates with Durant) as a deep-bench backup that summer.

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