Damian Lillard’s history with the Portland Trail Blazers is long and complicated.
It’ll soon grow because he will be back with the team for the first time in a few years and is ready to get to work.
Speaking about his previous run with the Blazers, Lillard opened up about their potential and what they fell short of.
He thinks they could have been champions, but were held back for a number of reasons.
“I felt like, in the next one or two years, we would have won it,” said Lillard. “We were one of the best teams in my second year, just inexperienced. We were one of the best teams for a long time. In my third year, we just had a lot of injuries, like major injuries. I feel like that fourth year would have been a good year.”
The Blazers had a slew of stars during Lillard’s second season.
He was doing great work with his average of 20.7 points and 5.6 assists, but LaMarcus Aldridge was dominant, Nicolas Batum was helping out a lot, and others like Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez, Mo Williams, and more were all chipping in.
Plus, Lillard was building a strong partnership with CJ McCollum, who would remain his friend and close teammate for years.
The Blazers were one of those teams that made others in the Western Conference nervous, but not nervous enough.
Because of injuries and a tough conference, they were never able to deliver on all of their promise, and they failed to reach their goals.
Eventually, it just became too much for Lillard, and he wanted to play for a team that could compete for a title.
But moving to the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t work out for Lillard, and he is now returning, older, happier, and ready to continue building a legacy in Portland.
NEXT: Damian Lillard Gets Honest About Coming Back To Portland
