PORTLAND -- Damian Lillard asked to be traded from the Portland Trail Blazers in the summer of 2023 because he didn't feel the team had a realistic chance to contend and needed to rebuild. The team did just that while he was away for two seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks and out all of last season recovering from a ruptured Achilles' tendon.
Now that he's back on the court for the Blazers, the question is how new coach Micah Nori will make the surplus of backcourt talent fit together.
"If we are just doing the right thing, playing the right way ... I think the balance will work itself out," Lillard said, when asked how the team will deploy newly-acquired, former All Star guard Ja Morant, former lottery pick Scoot Henderson and two-time NBA champion Jrue Holiday.
"If our mentality is right and we handle it right, I think we could be a tough time for everybody," Lillard added. "If I get the ball and I'm advancing the ball ahead to Ja Morant, I feel pretty good about it. If I'm advancing the ball to [All Star forward] Deni [Avdija] out there, I feel good about it. And for both of those guys, if they are attacking the rim, attacking the paint and they're kicking the ball out to me for a 3-pointer, I think they should feel great about that."
Lillard, 35, missed all of last season recovering from a torn Achilles that he suffered in his final game with the Milwaukee Bucks. The only public glimpse of him in a Blazers uniform came at the All-Star game in Los Angeles when he won the 3-point contest. He's been spotted in workout videos looking very much like his old self on the court. Monday he said that he's been fully recovered from his injury for several months and only thinks about it when he's asked.
"I don't have any restrictions," he said. "I talk about the injury when I'm asked about it, but when I'm playing, it's not a thought anymore. I'm at that stage. I'm able to play free."
Nori, who was hired after a protracted and controversial coaching search led by a mandate by new owner Tom Dundon to control costs, said that he and Lillard have spent a lot of early mornings in the Trail Blazers facility talking about the team and the potential it has.
"Dame literally just wants to win, I think that's the only thing left he really has to do," Nori said. "As far as physically, I've seen him in the gym and the individual workouts. ...He's in as good a shape as he's been in, like he's told me, in his whole career."
As far as balancing the guard-heavy roster, Nori and general manager Joe Cronin suggested that Holiday could see some time on the wing -- noting he defended San Antonio center Victor Wembanyama during last season's first-round playoff series. Nori also noted that an abundance of ballhandlers -- which also includes Avdija, who was put into more of a point forward role by former head coach Tiago Splitter last year -- will help take some of the load off of Lillard.
"I'm capable of doing whatever I need to do, but at this stage, I don't think I need to kill myself in a regular season trying to play 37, 36, 35 minutes if it's unnecessary," Lillard said. "We got a lot of guards, we got a lot of ability at the guard position and I don't think it should be necessary for me to have to play 35 minutes."
Incorporating Morant, whose tumultuous tenure in Memphis ended with the offseason trade to Portland, is the other giant challenge for the Blazers this season. Cronin said he was comfortable adding Morant, whose off-court troubles and injuries helped derail both his career and the Grizzlies trajectory as a contender, because of the work he'd done previously in scouting Morant and the influenced he hoped veteran leaders like Lillard and Holiday would have on him.
"I've studied Ja Morant for a long, long time and I'm very, very confident that he's a good guy," Cronin said. "Just the intel work and the study about him as a teammate and a member of a community, I don't have any concerns there. I also have a lot of faith in our environment and our ability to support him. Being around Dame Lillard and Jrue Holiday is a blessing ... They'll be impactful for Ja in their leadership, in their friendship, in their mentorship. Our organization as a whole, I think we do a good job of supporting players and keeping them in a safe and healthy, respectable environment. So this is a fresh start for Ja and I think he's going to thrive in this environment."
For his part, Morant said that he's come to appreciate the opportunity and need for a fresh start in his life and career.
"It's always a way to get a fresh start no matter where you at," Morant said. "Obviously when you have that chance, it's very important that you take it serious and take advantage of it. And obviously how past years went for me, I felt like it was needed for me. I can't speak for everybody else, but for me, yes. I feel a lot better and just ready to hoop, honestly.
"Everything's that happened over the years pretty much was just stuck with me. As long as Memphis was across my chest, it was still getting said. I'm pretty sure everybody in here probably still judge me off that song. But now I get to start over."
