Portland Trail Blazers: 3 big questions heading into 2019-20
By Jordan Foote
On the heels of a trip to the Western Conference Finals, did the Portland Trail Blazers do enough to get back there in 2019-20?
The 2018-19 NBA season was a big one for the Portland Trail Blazers. Although it didn’t end the way fans wanted it to, Terry Stotts’ crew put up quite the fight.
Finishing as the Western Conference’s third seed for the second-straight season, Portland improved from 49 wins in 2018 to 53 in 2019. Fueled by the high-scoring antics of the team’s usual suspects, Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, the Trail Blazers finished sixth in the league in points per game.
Having lost center Jusuf Nurkic to a gruesome leg injury late in the regular season, more pressure was put on Lillard and McCollum to perform come playoff time. They surely didn’t disappoint through the first two rounds, averaging a combined 54 points a night.
Portland’s luck ran out against the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, though, as it got sent home after four games. However, with the Warriors losing Kevin Durant to free agency and Klay Thompson for an extended period due to injury, the West is as wide open as it’s been in years.
Team general manager Neil Olshey re-upped with lucrative extensions for both of the Trail Blazers’ stars. Looking to run things back for yet another campaign, what questions are left unanswered ahead of the 2019-20 season?