Damian Lillard Ready to Take His Game to MVP Levels

Chris Maurice

The Portland Trailblazers are in a bit of a tough spot right now: LaMarcus Aldridge left, Wesley Matthews is gone, and even Arron Afflalo jumped ship. In a matter of weeks, Damian Lillard found himself as the lone remaining star in the state of Oregon.

Well, it certainly could be worse. Lillard emerged as a star the very moment he took the court in Portland, earning Rookie of the Year honors over New Orleans Pelicans’ top-pick Anthony Davis in 2012. Since then, he has continued to ball out, becoming enough of a household name at 25 to warrant a $100 million endorsement deal from Adidas.

They aren’t just handing those deals out.

But things won’t be getting any easier on Lillard this coming season. The Blazers struggled enough this past season heading into the playoffs, and then clawed their way to one win over the Memphis Grizzlies to avoid the sweep. And that was with Aldridge and company still on the roster.

Lillard has now been thrown into the same situation as other great point guards such as Allen Iverson or, more recently, Derrick Rose. Lillard, much like these two former NBA MVPs will be expected to single-handedly carry his team’s offense to enough points a night to win games.

Of course, that comes with a downside. A lot of play time comes with extra injury risk. Of course, we all saw how things have turned out for Rose since his MVP award.

No, I’m not saying Lillard is doomed to spend the rest of his career riding the bench with a torn this or broken that. AI was fine.

I’m also not saying that Lillard is on track to win MVP this year. Honestly, the Blazers will be lucky to win 40 games with only one decent offensive performer.

Basically what I’m saying (in a drawn-out manner) is that has a chance to do something great here. You can argue that this was still Aldridge’s team before, but now that he’s gone the fate of the Blazers is 100 percent in the hands of Damian Lillard.

Time to witness greatness..