Damian Lillard Says Trail Blazers Stars Don't 'Have the Luxury to Sit Out'
As more NBA teams closely monitor how much their best players are on the court, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard said his team doesn't have the luxury of load management.
Per the Oregonian's Joe Freeman, Lillard said the Western Conference will make it difficult for the Blazers to rest their best players during the regular season.
"We're not some big superteam," Lillard said. "So I don't think we have the luxury to sit out, especially with how competitive the West is going to be."
CJ McCollum backed up his teammate's assessment, invoking the way the Toronto Raptors handled Kawhi Leonard last season: "The race in the Western Conference is extremely tight. I don't know if we can afford to Kawhi it, so to speak. You'll Kawhi your way out of the playoffs."
The Raptors crafted a plan to keep Leonard healthy after he missed 73 games during the 2017-18 season with a quad injury. It worked because the team went 17-5 in the 22 games he sat out and then rode him to the NBA championship.
Among the reasons Toronto was able to pump the brakes on Leonard was a deep roster and its presence in an Eastern Conference that lacked depth behind the top three teams.
Heading into 2019-20, the West looks loaded, with FiveThirtyEight projecting 10 teams to finish at or above .500.
After reaching the Western Conference Finals last season, the Blazers haven't been discussed as much with other teams making big offseason moves. The Los Angeles Clippers added Leonard and Paul George; the Los Angeles Lakers landed Anthony Davis; Bojan Bogdanovic and Mike Conley joined the Utah Jazz; Russell Westbrook was reunited with James Harden on the Houston Rockets.
Lillard told Freeman his body "felt it" after he played so much in the regular season and playoffs in 2018-19. Head coach Terry Stotts noted there are ways to ease the burden on his stars, including keeping them out of scrimmages and practice activities that put extra stress on their bodies.
Everything Portland does goes through Lillard and McCollum. The duo combined to average 47.1 points, 10.1 assists and 8.7 rebounds per game last season. They have played at least 33.9 minutes per game apiece in each of the past four seasons.
The Blazers will begin their quest to get back to the conference finals Oct. 23 when they open the regular season against the Denver Nuggets.
