Damian Lillard played for the Trail Blazers for 11 seasons before being traded to the Milwaukee Bucks ahead of the 2023-24 season. The closest Lillard and the Blazers came to the NBA Finals was the 2016 Western Conference Finals, where they lost to the Golden State Warriors.
Lillard said the Blazers could have won an NBA title if one player had stayed with the team. During an appearance on former NBA player Jeff Teague’s “Club 520” podcast, the 34-year-old All-Star guard said that if power forward LaMarcus Aldridge had stayed with the Blazers and not signed a free agent deal with the San Antonio Spurs in 2016, the Blazers would have hoisted the Larry O’Brien championship trophy at some point.
“One thing I think about in my career is if he never went to San Antonio, we would have won (a title) at least once,” Lillard said. “I could have flourished, but he was that good.”
Lillard said Aldridge’s gravitational pull on defenses helps him create wide-open shots, especially in pick-and-roll situations.
“He made it a lot easier. Teams really paid attention to him,” Lillard said. “In the pick-and-roll with him, he’s very efficient, he makes all his shots. I throw the ball to him on the block, they’re going to catch it. I’m there by myself. My rookie year, I started every game with a pull-up elbow on the pick-and-roll … because they were trying to get back at him.”
Lillard and Aldridge were teammates on the Blazers for three seasons (2012-15), before Aldridge signed a four-year, $80 million contract to join the Spurs in 2015. The Blazers reached the playoffs in two of those seasons, losing to the Spurs in the conference semifinals in 2014 and losing to the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round in 2015.
