---

Damian Lillard is an optimist. At least he was optimistic Wednesday, hours befor
e a disappointing loss in Boston, where I caught up with him on the TD Garden fl
oor. Despite Portland’s rocky season—31–35 entering Friday-night’s game in P
hiladelphia—Lillard still believed the Trail Blazers could salvage it.



It looks like we’re struggling, but there are [five] teams with 33 or 34 losses
,” Lillard says. “So it looks like, ‘Oh, you know, trying to get a play-in sp
ot.’ But everybody’s playing each other and everybody’s in the same thing. We
 could end up fifth. In a perfect world, it’s possible. Right now, we just have
 to keep fighting and try to be one of those teams that comes out on the other s
ide.”



This isn’t a column calling for the Blazers to trade Lillard. Or for Lillard to
 ask for a trade. That story is old. Tired. Done. Lillard is committed to Portla
nd. He has said so publicly. He has contractually locked himself in. He plays to
 win championships. He is just hell-bent on winning one with the Blazers.



The question is, how do they do it? Portland has some nice pieces. Anfernee Simo
ns can score. Matisse Thybulle can defend. Jerami Grant can do both. The Blazers
 have dealt with injuries over the season like most teams. But if the playoffs s
tarted today, Portland would not be part of it.



It’s just been one of those seasons for us where we have had a lot of adversity
,” Lillard says. “We haven’t been able to hit our stride at any point in the
season. That’s the first time I’ve ever experienced that in my career.”

Lillard：這個賽季對我們來說，一直都是充滿著挑戰和困難，我們始終沒有找到自己的狀
態。 這是我職業生涯中第一次遇到這種情況。

Lillard needs help. It’s Portland general manager Joe Cronin’s job to get it f
or him. Cronin is in his first full season as the Blazers’ top basketball exec,
 a job he ascended to after Neil Olshey was fired in 2021. His tenure has been
… unremarkable. He traded CJ McCollum—a move that needed to happen—netting wh
at amounted to Josh Hart and a first-round pick. He flipped Hart for Thybulle an
d Cam Reddish. His wheeling and dealing has so far amounted to little more than
a shuffling of deck chairs.



It will take a well-executed plan to get Portland to a championship-caliber leve
l.

Does Lillard see one?

I definitely can understand what the plan is,” Lillard says. “Me and Joe, one
thing we do have is transparency. He knows what I want. I want to win. I want to
 win in Portland, and he’s expressed the same to me. He’s told me, ‘We want t
o give you every opportunity to win.’



“But there comes a time where we have the right intentions, [but] we’ve got to
 execute. We have to actually make that come to life, to give ourselves a chance
 to really make a run at it. And because of who I know him to be, I trust him on
 that. I don’t ever think he would tell me one thing and then not do it. If any
thing, it would just be like, ‘We did our best and we couldn’t do it. And what
 happens then?



I think I’ve always been firm in my commitment to what I want and to this organ
ization, and that’s where it stands right now,” Lillard says. “But like I sai
d, if it comes time where they say, ‘Man, we can’t get it done, maybe it’s ti
me for us to turn a page,’ I don’t think that will be the case, but we’ll see
. Right now, all I know is I want to win.”



It’s not impossible. The most important piece of a title contender is a franchi
se player. Lillard is it. He’s 32 and remains at the peak of his powers. He is
averaging career highs in scoring and field goal percentage. He is taking 11 thr
ee-pointers a game and making 37.5% of them. Some wondered whether the injury th
at interrupted the 2021–22 season was a sign of decline.

贏得總冠軍最重要的一環是球隊的核心球員，Lillard就是他們的核心。他現年32歲，依然
處於職業生涯的巔峰，場均得分和命中率都達到了職業生涯新高，場均出手11個三分球
，命中率達到了37.5%。有一些人擔心2021-22賽季的受傷會是衰退的跡象

For Lillard, it was rejuvenating.

“I feel as good as I felt in a long time,” Lillard says. “Dealing with that [
abdominal] injury, it was just stressful. Because I knew I wasn’t right. Being
up late, being sore all the time, not being able to move, knowing I was limited,
 not knowing how my body was going to respond and s--- like that. That was stres
sful. I’ve been able to just be a lot more clear mentally just knowing that I’
m strong and I’m healthy.”



Lillard’s focus now is getting to the play-in, to the playoffs and seeing wheth
er a healthy Blazers team can surprise in a wide-open field. But he knows next o
ffseason is a big one. There will be opportunities to upgrade. Portland could ha
ve as many as two first-round picks in June and a cache of second-rounders to de
al. If a needle-mover becomes available, Lillard wants the Blazers in the mix fo
r him.



“That means we go into the offseason and we don’t come out the way we have in
the past,” Lillard says. “Where it’s like, ‘Oh, we’re going to try to do so
mething,’ and then we watch other people capitalize on things that are out ther
e, and we pass, pass, pass, pass and can’t get anything done and then it’s don
e.



I would like to win a championship before that,” Lillard says. “So I’m not lo
oking at any timeline, but I’m not going to be one of these dudes out here stre
tching it out. I’ve made plenty of money; I’ve accomplished a lot. I just want
 to win a championship and then just go from there.”



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※ 作者: mingonly 2023-03-11 20:52:28
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