Portland Trail Blazers: What if Brandon Roy didn’t have to retire early due to injury?

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Dec 25, 2021
Portland Trail Blazers
Brandon Roy, Portland Trail Blazers (phot by Rupak Anto, via Flickr).

Would the Trail Blazers have won a Championship with Brandon Roy?

That is a tricky question because Roy’s injury came in a similar timeframe as Greg Oden‘s career-ending injury. Even without Oden, Roy made the team special. Players wanted to come to Portland. Chris Paul publicly voiced his appreciation and respect for Brandon and how he’d like to play with him someday.

The Blazers had a star who not only held his own against the league’s best but also earned their respect. In addition, he helped nurture a positive team culture. Then throw in some young stars like LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum, and it’s a recipe for bringing in other stars.

I think more championships would have eventually happened with a healthy Roy leading the team. Whether via trade or free agency, I think the team roster would have improved, and the Portland Trail Blazers would have been contenders for the vast part of Roys’ career.

If you threw him on those early 90’s finals teams or those late 90’s Rasheed Wallace teams, Rip City fans would have seen a few more Blazers NBA titles as both of those teams’ biggest weaknesses was their playmaking ability in the clutch. A skill Roy possessed on an unreal level.

There is no reason to think a further developed Aldridge along with talent consolidation wouldn’t have put Roy in a similar situation in the 2010s. There is a butterfly effect to all of it, but who is to say Portland wouldn’t have still ended up going after Damian Lillard in 2012?

Blazers fans talk about how crazy good Lillard is in the clutch; they’re right to call him the most clutch Blazers player of all time. Lillard is also in his tenth pro season, whereas Roy had what I consider his career-ending injury at the end of his fourth.

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