Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard is gassed
Chris Phillips
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As the 2020-21 season winds down, so is Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard’s energy level. The answers as to what the team should do are difficult.
The NBA regular season is almost at an end. So that makes now a critical time for the Portland Trail Blazers to hit their peak. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. The Blazers are struggling right now. The good news is there is a solution. The bad news there is only one solution, and it’s a risky play. Damian Lillard needs a rest.
Can the rest of the Blazers pick up the slack and win games without Damian? That is the big question. Most likely, this won’t happen. Dame is a great competitor. All great competitors want to compete all the time for as long as they can. Also, Terry Stotts won’t make this drastic of a change.
The Blazers head coach is stuck in his mediocre successful ways. Sure, Stotts piled up wins, but tell me, what coach who has led one team for as long as Stotts has who didn’t pile up wins? Where’s the hardware for all his successful coaching?
Dame Time is Expensive
But getting back to the matter at hand, Lillard is gassed. In other words, Dame time needs chill time. He’s played every game this year except for TWO! Remember when CJ McCollum was out with his foot injury? Damian played extra minutes to keep the team in games and avoid getting too buried in the playoff standings. The cost for that price has come due. Here’s a look at the month-to-month minutes logged by Damian this year.
- December – 35.3 (1)
- January – 36.7 (7)
- February – 35.4 (6)
- March – 36.6 (8)
- April – 33.8 (2)
For the year, Dame averages 35.9 minutes a game. Those numbers in parenthesis are the number of minutes-per-game per month that he played more than 36 minutes per game. April still has 10 games left, so you can reasonably expect that April’s number to grow. With only nine games in May, how many times will Dame be asked, no required, to go over 36 minutes a game?