Plenty of reasons for excitement in Portland

1. Best backcourt in the NBA

Look around the NBA. What backcourt is better than Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum? These two star guards proved last year this team is perfectly fine having two small guards leading the way for them. Both guys have the ability to take over a game at any time and can light up a scoreboard.

What’s also unique about these two players is they don’t have egos and will willingly take a back seat to the other if they can see one is having a better game. Lillard is a top-five player in the league and has no problem letting McCollum be the guy. He doesn’t feel threatened by him or worry that he will lose shine.

McCollum doesn’t feel like he needs to prove himself and be better than Lillard, he understands he will get his and that having a teammate with Lillard’s skill is more of a benefit than a negative.

It showed during the playoffs when Lillard took over the first round by dominating OKC and hitting the series-winning 3-point shot. McCollum handled the Denver series while Lillard was off and took the go-ahead shot in game seven on the road to advance to the West Finals.

While Klay Thompson is recovering from a torn ACL, McCollum might be the second-best shooting guard in the West behind James Harden. Lillard is tied with Curry as the best point guard. The Portland Trail Blazers star guards have a realistic chance to average a combined 50 points per game this year.

Lillard should be in line for a great season. He should be an All-Star, make an All-NBA team and if all goes right, he will end the season on the MVP ballot. McCollum should have a better year than last and could make his first All-Star Game since Thompson will miss the first half of the season.

This team will only go as far as these two lead them, and they showed last year they can take it pretty far. Now they will have more help going into the 2019-20 season and will look to take the next step by going to the NBA Finals.