The Portland Trail Blazers won a strong All-Star duo with Damien Lillard and La Marcus Aldridge in the 2010s. Unfortunately, Aldridge left the team and left the team before they could maximize their potential together.
I recall that in the 2010s, most people were the most dominant team with the Golden State Warriors. From 2015 to 2019, they reached the NBA Finals and won three championships. On many of these title runs, they defeated the Portland Trail Blazers multiple times in the postseason thanks to a good team, including Kevin Durant.
Damien Lillard was a superstar guard for the Trail Blazers, but he didn’t have a supporting cast that could hold candles on the Warriors’ stacked team. Lamarcus Aldridge was a true co-star, but he left in 2015 to join San Antonio Spurs, erasing his hopes for the Blazers title.
A few years after they broke up, Lillard admitted that they could be together, but there was too much misunderstanding among all involved.
Together, Lillard and Aldridge were a great duo. It was a classic one-two punch with a point guard and a big guy. Initially, Aldridge was clearly number one as he was the team’s established All-Star after missing out on an opportunity with Greg Auden.
However, Lillard continued to be promoted to stardom and quickly became a reliable scorer and playmaker. Aldridge wanted to maintain his role as the number one man, which ultimately caused problems between the two players.
Lillard had no problems, but Aldridge didn’t realize he felt that he was going on. When he joined the Spurs, it led to his final exit in 2015. Lillard has always loved Portland, which is why after two seasons apart, he returned to the organization.
The Blazers missed out on a great duo that managed to compete with the Warriors at the Western Conference. They were poised to compete at the same level, especially as CJ McCollum also began to rise to stardom in the 2015-16 season.
“I’d come out of the meeting with him and ask if our relationship is rescueable? I called LA and asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ And he said, “People are saying it’s your team and they say it’s my team.” I thought everything was smooth.
“For four years, we had to be on different teams for me to talk to him. They didn’t say anything to me about the team or anything like that.”
“Man, it was just someone else saying things. I just said, ‘Boys, who’s team, who’s city, who it is, or none of it. I was trying to make you the best complement.”
As the best player in the Blazers basketball era, Portland was in a good place with the duo under coach Terry Stotts. They regularly playoffs and were also contenders in the 2015 postseason.
Unfortunately, they suffered major injuries that hindered their competitiveness. Wesley Matthews was a key cog in the system, but his Achilles injury prevented the Blazers from maintaining their depth.
Nonetheless, Lillard fully believes that he and Aldridge were able to lead the team to the championship. In his first two years he saw the Blazers do well, but the 2014-15 season showed positive signs. Sadly, Aldridge left before he could realize his potential.
Now that Lillard is back in Portland, he wants to lead them to the championship. He is currently an elder politician on the team, but he has a promising teammate. It’s a long shot, but anything is possible in the NBA.