So, what can explain the difference from the previous season? Part of it can be attributed to Damian Lillard's maturation. Many critics have claimed that because Lillard decided to stay and play NCAA basketball for 4 seasons, his Rookie of the Year 2012-13 season would be a good indication of his ceiling. However, he has proved all of this to be nothing more than mere speculation. He has taken his good rookie season and has translated it into a GREAT sophomore season. Although defense is still clearly a deficiency in his game, his silky smooth jump-shooting stroke and the unbelievable poise he already radiates at such a young stage of his career have already brought him into the discussion of an All-Star berth at an incredibly competitive point guard position. While we are still talking about Lillard, let's admire his 41 point performance last week against the Kings good for his career high, including 26 points in the 4th quarter which breaks the franchise record of the most points scored in any given quarter by a Blazer. Oh, and he also managed to score a ridiculous 14 points in 49 seconds to try and mount a late comeback win in that same quarter. Random thing of note, when Kobe was asked about his own prospects of playing in the All-Star game, he said, "My advice would be to vote for some of these younger players, the Damian Lillards, because they're more than deserving to be out there and play during that weekend."
Another thing we can attribute is the development of LaMarcus Aldridge's leadership characteristics along with his MVP-caliber play. First of all, Aldridge has improved his ability to rebound the ball drastically. He seems to have bulked up slightly so he is able to get into better rebounding positions. He is one of 4 players that is currently averaging 20-10 (the others are Love, Cousins, and Griffin). Going back to the growth of his leadership abilities, Stotts has given the responsiblity to Aldridge with feeding him the ball at the key moments in the game where they just are looking for some sort of offense in clutch situations, and he has delivered a large majority of the times. It is interesting to note that there were various trade rumors circling Aldridge after the way the previous season had ended. It was reported that Aldridge was unhappy with the direction the team was going but my guess is that he is more than happy with the way things are at Portland. In fact, Aldridge has recently said, "I would like to re-sign here. If they want to talk about it, I would talk about it. They haven't yet, but I'm looking forward to the chance to do that." Amazing how much winning chances the mentality of a team. The Portland Trail Blazers are probably feeling ecstatic that the best power forward in the league wants to stay even though he will have more than a fair share of suitors as he will be an unrestricted free agent in 2 years time.
The Portland Trail Blazers probably have the most underrated wing players in the league. How good has Wesley Matthews been this year? He has been absolutely lights out from beyond the arc this year, averaging 2.6 3-pointers made a game along with a .421 3 point field goal percentage. Nicolas Batum is what you would call a do-it-all kind of guy. He stuffs the stats sheet with a fair share of rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. Even though his scoring has been down, he has really developed into a complete player. At the small forward position, he is only behind LeBron James in the entire NBA in terms of assists per game. Matthews and Batum also both offer stellar perimeter defense. The starting line-up can compete with any other team in the league. For all of you Golden State Warrior fans, we can see a lot of similarities between their 2 starting line-ups as they are both primarily jump shooting teams:
Point Guard: Curry and Lillard (3's, playmaker, sub-par defense)
Shooting Guard: Thompson and Matthews (3's, solid perimeter defense)
Small Forward: Iguodala and Batum (Jack-of-all-trades)
Power Forward: Lee and Aldridge (Mid-range and rebounding with sub-par defense)
Center: Bogut and Lopez (Paint protectors, don't really offer anything offensively)
It will be interesting to see how far they can go as many critics of the team claim that jump shooting teams can not succeed when playoffs come around. Teams naturally have off-nights, and the Blazers have shown that they are reliant on their shots falling in order to succeed. They average the lowest points in the paint per game in the NBA. One of the big problems that the team faced last year still have not been fixed this season which is bench scoring. Although bringing in Mo Williams and Dorell Wright has improved this department drastically, the Portland Trail Blazers still rely heavily on their starting 5 for putting points on the board. An interesting thing to note is that the 2013-14 Portland Trail Blazers are the first team in NBA history to have made over 20 3-point field goals on 2 separate occasions.
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