2021 Orlando Magic Playoff Lessons: Portland Trail Blazers’ premature exit shows how hard it is to contend

The Portland Trail Blazers are always going to be in contention for a playoff spot so long as they have Damian Lillard around. That is what having a superstar does for your team.

So it was no real surprise to see the Blazers secure the sixth seed in a packed Western Conference where a New Orleans Pelicans team with Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram and a Golden State Warriors side led by an all-time great in Stephen Curry missed out completely.

But even that was not enough. The Blazers were not satisfied with their first-round series loss, their fifth first-round exit in the last eight years (all with playoff appearances). When a team has a superstar, they demand a bit more.

So Portland is seeking a better coach, parting with Terry Stotts after nine seasons. They simply want more. They want to be better.

The Orlando Magic are not there yet, but they might be again soon, even if the outlook is far from perfect right now. And they too will feel the pressure to get better and constantly move forward.

The Orlando Magic have a long way to go to get where the Portland Trail Blazers are. But with a superstar on the roster, the Blazers show that stagnation is never good enough.

Portland was far from a perfect team this year. Two years removed from making the Western Conference Finals, the Blazers stagnated. They could not get back there and they regressed in important ways as they struggled to put a roster together to lift their loyal star Lillard beyond first-round scraps.

Portland made the playoffs and remained a threat this season despite having one of the worst defenses in the NBA during the regular season, ranking an appalling second from bottom for defensive rating at 115.3 points per 100 possessions. The only team worse was the Sacramento Kings.

Drawing the Denver Nuggets in the first round was just about the best Portland could have hoped for. With no Jamal Murray, the Nuggets were a severely weakened side despite MVP Nikola Jokic playing at an absurd level in his absence and Michael Porter taking a leap.

But once again, the Trail Blazers could not strike the right balance and were eliminated in a six-game series against a superior Nuggets team. The Blazers saw a 14-point lead at home in the second half of Game 6 evaporate and their season was done.

That is despite Lillard doing all he could to push his team to the conference semis, having one of the all-time great playoff performances in Game 5. Lillard averaged 34.3 points per game on 59.3-percent effective field goal percentage. And it was not enough.

The kind of turmoil the Blazers have been in this offseason might raise trade whispers for their superstar player. But Lillard is built different. And so Portland is asking itself how to reload again.

This has been the dilemma for the Blazers for some time. Just what do you do when you have one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game on a hefty salary with limited room to re-jig the roster around him?

It is not a problem the Magic have had for some time, and may not anytime soon either after falling to a disappointing fifth in the NBA Draft. But someday, hopefully, they will do once again.

Portland Trail Blazers

A star — an elite NBA talent or All-Star — is not enough to win. An MVP-caliber season is not enough if the other pieces are in place. Lillard was not enough to topple an undermanned Nuggets team on his own. Lillard carried the team far but he needs more. Far more, it seems, than just a new coach.

Portland’s inability to even make a Finals with Lillard should serve as a harsh reminder of just how difficult it is to get your star the right team around him.

The Blazers do not have bad players, though. C.J. McCollum is a fine scorer, averaging 23.1 points per game this season. Jusuf Nurkic when healthy is a defensive problem for opponents. And Norman Powell is a solid two-way guard with the ability to go on great scoring runs.

But still, it was not enough. And it ultimately cost rumored Magic head coaching candidate Terry Stotts his job. Even though there is some excellent talent around Lillard, the fit just was not right and the woeful defensive signs were there all season to signal that this would end in disappointment again.

The Atlanta Hawks are currently finding out where a team that fits together well gets you. They have built a team and drafted around Trae Young. It is what the New Orleans Pelicans must do now around Zion Williamson, even if it means taking a player in the draft that can help out more now but has lower upside.

And it is what the Magic will have to consider when that star player eventually does come along again. Whoever he might be.

Portland has fallen desperately short in the draft. They have used their picks in trades or have taken players who do not make a ton of sense around Lillard. And it has proven costly.

The Magic are craving a player like Lillard. Everyone is. But Orlando especially has long needed that star player to build around.

Should Jeff Weltman draft a gem this year, or should someone like Cole Anthony or Jonathan Isaac take a significant leap forward, Portland’s struggles should emphasise the need to act confidently and make necessary sacrifices to better accommodate your star.

The message from Portland’s playoff exit is clear for Orlando: Make the most of your star player, when you get one, while you can. Fix what needs fixing, even if that means trading away a player (like McCollum, for example) for someone less talented but a better fit for your team.

There is only so long that title window stays open.