It had been a while.
For the first time in three seasons, the Trail Blazers have a participant in the NBA All-Star Game. And, just like before, that person is Damian Lillard. This came at a time when the Blazers, frankly, were in need of some good news. Their record 48 games in — currently at 26-22 — has hovered just above the .500 mark.
The team’s consistency in treading water and staying just within the playoff picture is remarkable, really. Despite two three-game losing streaks and a separate five-game skid, the Blazers have yet to sit below .500 on the year, and they have some impressive wins over top-notch opponents.
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But that mediocrity eventually led their All-Star to meet with team owner Paul Allen, according to ESPN’s Chris Haynes, to talk about the direction of the team. The conversation was generally positive in nature and described as a "a productive, open forum to share opinions and express concern," according to Haynes’ report.
It’s hard to say exactly what breaking point — if any — Lillard reached to set this meeting up, but if the team’s star was setting up a chat with the ultimate decision-maker to discuss direction, criticism had to come up at some point.
Lillard is one of the best offensive point guards in the league. When he’s cooking, his stepback 3-pointer game is downright scary.
For example, take this game from Dec. 9 of this season. This was Lillard's third 3-pointer of the game. Look how much time has elapsed.
Statistically, Portland is 14th in offensive rating and ninth in defensive rating, figures that haven’t changed much at all since the beginning of the year. Record-wise, the Blazers have been stuck in the bottom half of the Western Conference playoff race all season.
For some teams, that’d be okay, but for a team that’s never finished higher than fifth in the West standings since Lillard was drafted, justification for the meeting suddenly makes more sense.
The current Blazers team has a slew of contracts — Evan Turner, Mo Harkless and Meyers Leonard are making over $38 million combined this season alone, and more in the seasons to come — that make it hard for the front office to find any flexibility.
So, while Lillard might have concerns, or even be frustrated, the current roster construct will have to do in the short term.
Thankfully for Lillard, the Blazers and their fans, that’s where CJ McCollum, and the awesome partnership the two have built, comes in.
The Lillard-McCollum Connection
Despite some depth and long-term contract issues, there are few current tandems as devastating offensively as Lillard and McCollum.
In other words, they’re a lot of fun. They’re both elite-level scorers with strong handles and abilities to drive the lane. They are also good enough shooters that a slow pace is just as appealing as an up-and-down race.
And McCollum, like Lillard, can get hot from deep very quickly. McCollum's confidence rises from deep as the shots start going in. And when that happens, the Blazers become dangerous.
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Take this shot from a game last week where McCollum nailed six 3-point bombs. On a wide-open fast break, McCollum felt the hot hand and decided to pull up.
Very Lillard-like.
Currently, the pair leads the team in just about every category. The Blazers as a whole have made 478 3-pointers this season, and the Lillard-McCollum pair have made more than half of them.
They’ve played together for five years now, and the chemistry is as good as it’s ever been. Blazers head coach Terry Stotts loves using off-ball motions to get them involved, and McCollum is especially good on the catch-and-shoot — he is shooting 47.8 percent from 3-point land in catch-and-shoot situations this year, according to NBA.com.
When he gets the ball off a Stotts play call and a Lillard pass, Blazers basketball can be beautiful.
But when they’re on the floor together as the primary guard pair, the results haven’t been all that spectacular. In the 1,046 minutes Lillard and McCollum have played together, the team's offensive rating is 106.8. That’s solid, but only slightly higher than the overall team total (105.0).
With the caveat that two-man ratings don’t tell the whole story, it’s worth looking into their teammates, and which ones help get them going.
Part of this is how good each star guard is with control of the offense. As good as McCollum is off the ball, he is also great as the primary ball handler, and failing to use that skill would simply be a waste. When you factor in Turner — who’s played in 480 of the 1,046 minutes Lillard and McCollum have shared — is a ball-dominant player as well.
But that isn’t always a bad thing.
When the star guards are paired with the 6-1 Shabazz Napier — yet another point guard — the Blazers really run. According to NBA.com, that trio is one of Portland's best three-man lineups that’s played at least 120 minutes in terms of net (20.5) and defensive rating (93.0), and it holds the fourth-best offensive rating (113.4) to boot. A larger sample size will truly determine the effectiveness of this lineup, but it’s been great so far.
But after that, the next best three-man combo that includes both Lillard and McCollum is way down the list, when they play next to Ed Davis (6.9 net rating).
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Again, the duo is good enough that they make it work. And Stotts has been smart about splitting time and giving both of them a chance to play with a variety of lineup combinations. That’s why the overwhelming majority of lineup stats — with any decent sample size — feature one of the two stars on this team.
While McCollum is still waiting to make an All-Star Game, he’s the best teammate Lillard has, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. So when news reports come out about Lillard’s reported desire to discuss big-picture goals with the man at the top of the organizational chart, it’s fair to assume that part of that direction includes McCollum.
The pair isn’t a statistical punch in the gut to the rest of the league, but each guy does that individually. Together, they may not be the best fit, but they’ve made it work with what they have.
And when it’s on, it’s a lot of fun.