Brian Windhorst says the Trail Blazers ARE NOT a playoff team despite adding Dame | NBA Today

Brian Windhorst says the Trail Blazers ARE NOT a playoff team despite adding Dame | NBA Today

Wow. I don’t be emotional about stuff. Like, I ain’t going to cry. I ain’t going to cry, but like I don’t usually be feeling like this, but I feel so happy on the inside, man. And we’re happy for you, Dame. It’s okay to let out one tear. As he was officially reintroduced late last night, he addressed reporters at around 9:00 Eastern yesterday evening. Here’s what he said about what it’s like to be back in Portland. I think if we’re all being honest, um, we obviously never wanted to see him go and even when he did, um, we all wanted to see him back. It was something that I never wanted to happen to begin with. You know, even once it was like I knew I was being traded, like I don’t know if I ever let it go, you know. It was hard to to let go. I literally after I tore my Achilles and I felt it and I was sitting on the floor. I grabbed it and I rolled over and I sat up and the first thought that I had to myself was like I’m about to come back from an Achilles. We got to the back and when the doctor said, “You tore your Achilles.” Like I think everybody else had more pity for me than I did. Like I had the PTS like you know about to cry and all of that stuff. Like I didn’t cry. Like you said, it’s a mental battle, but you know, if it’s a I don’t I don’t lose those. I told him that this year he’s going to be uh he’s gonna be the highest paid assistant coach in league history. Like Chanty said, I’m basically going to be like an assistant coach. So, I’ll be around and with this being a younger team, it’s a lot of things that I can share, you know, without having to be on the floor. A lot of ground covered there. But I got to say, it’s good to see Dame back. It’s fits Damen Lillard back in Portland alongside Bobby Mark, Chana Gumay, Ramona Shelurn, our Stanford sisters rocking the card at the red here. Our senior writer Brian Winhorse beaming in. Brian, when you look at Dame’s return through the lens of what this means for the Portland Trailblazers in the short and long term. How are you viewing this team in a really crowded Western Conference? Well, that had to be very therapeutic for Blazer fans seeing those images and hearing from Dame sitting in front of the the Blazers logo again because the organization quite frankly hasn’t been the same since he left. They’ve been in a rebuild. They weren’t they didn’t have high expectations, but they’ve been underwhelming even in their status of their rebuild. So, I think it’s a great moment for Blazers fans. this particular way they’ve structured this deal where they’re paying him the full mid-level this year and next year. Um, I guess it’s a value next year, but this year they’ve got $40 million in dead money when you include the buyout to DeAndre Aton and what they’re paying Dame to be an assistant coach by their own admission. Um, but they traded for Drew Holiday, who’s a hund00 million investment to win more immediately while they’ve also got this young team and a a star player they’re not going to have till next year. So they’re kind of stuck in between both worlds and I expect them to have good nights and bad nights this season and I do not see them as a playoff team. Chana always says the worst place to be in the NBA is in the middle. I get all the warm and fuzzies though seeing Damen Lillard back in Portland. But from a team perspective, Chennai, they talked a lot about wanting to win. I was a little bit surprised that they leaned less into the nostalgia in this conference, which there were times, but also this is a team that still has ambition to win in the West. Well, they still have another year of growth for their young stars before Dame really comes back. And if you think about it, you know, the word that comes to my mind is peace. You’re going to see a peaceful transition of power. Dame is now the quote unquote assistant coach, right? But now he’s going to be able to show the young guys what it takes to be great at this level, which I love. And it also gives peace to Dame because pursuing a championship comes at a cost. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But at least he found that peace again. And so do the fans because everyone loves to see him back, you know, at least from a PR perspective. But overall, what you’re seeing is someone that is going to come in still at a high level a year from now and be able to lead and show people what it means to be great. So, I do see this as a win-win. Even though on the books, it might be weird. And yes, this team is definitely in the middle. I do think this is one of those things where you look from the outside, you’re all still advertising what you want your program, your franchise, your organization to be. And this was a good move by them to show people we’re building for the foreseeable future. Maybe not the next two years or three years, but we still are a destination worth looking towards. I win, Horus. It is July 22nd, okay? And I need some good news. I I need the warm feeling. I need the story. Like this is Listen, if we’re talking if we’re in November, December, and this happens later in the in the in the time, okay, fine. We can talk about whether they’re really going to win this year or not. But for right now, can we lean into nostalgia? Because I covered when he left there pretty deeply and we it was not a great exit. Like they did not and he talked about this with Joe Cronin. said, you know, it was really on us that we never really had those conversations. There was a lot of little things that added up to him feeling and them not feeling great about him and him not feeling great about them. And you kind of got the sense that he never really wanted to leave. He even said it there. And most of the time when people say that I don’t believe him. I believe Dame Lula. Like I believe he never wanted to leave Portland. And so on July 22nd, can can we just feel good about things in the Pacific Northwest? as the trailblazers that were talking about their ambition, that we’re talking about winning, that are looking at their books. I’m going to turn to Bobby from accounting here to make sure that we’ve got the books right, but they are set up here. Damen Lord’s contract is structured so that they can try to make another push. Well, I mean, I look at it almost like pre- free agency, okay, as far as here we are, and I think we’re going to show Portland on the touchcreen right now with them. They were going to be able They had that non-tax mid-level exception already, right? 14.1 million. Who are you going to use it on? You might as well use it on Damen Lillard, even if he’s going to sit out for the whole year. So, you get probably one of the best free agents available in 2026, but you get him now. Now, here’s where your roster could certainly look like differently next year. We put him in there for Shane Sharp. Now, that adds to the dynamic of Lillard and Holiday. Here’s some things to keep an eye on. When Damen Lillard signed that contract, the second year descends. Portland is in position next offseason to go out free agent shopping to go get a max salary player. Wow, that’s keep an eye on there, right? The extensions of Shaden Sharp and Tummani Kamar certainly play a role. But here’s the other thing we forget about this. Remember Damen Lillard was traded to Milwaukee. Remember what came back? Portland has control of their 2028, 2029, and 2030 Milwaukee Bucks first round picks. So, they are certainly in a position to add in free agency and also go into free agency. I love that breakdown, Bobby. It’s basically, sorry, Wendy, it sounds win-win. You make the fans happy. You make Dame happy. You have flexibility by the books and you can sign a free agent for the foreseeable future. So, maybe the next two, three years may not look as bad or less competitive. Like, they’re actually putting themselves in good position. I think they’ve signaled all year that they are trying to be better this year. They’re not tanking again. This isn’t playing for the draft again. They found Denny Abdia. They found Klingan. They found Shaden Sharp. I I think they have some pieces now to build around and now they had the hole that they got for Damian. That’s crazy. Wow. Yeah. And it seems like again they are not just saying that we’re going to bring back Dame. They want to have a couple of moves that Bobby just laid out that they’re able to to deal here to be able to put a roster around Dame when he comes back to at least be interesting. I don’t know if that means a playin team. I don’t know that that means a top six team, but at least be interesting here. Wendy, last word on this. So, the one thing I will say is this kind of reminds me of something that the Indiana Pacers did about 15 years ago, sort of one generation ago. David West was a respected veteran, former all-star, was coming off of an ACL tear. People weren’t sure what he was going to have left. The Pacers had some young guys, a young Paul George, a young Roy Hibbert, a young George Hill. David West came in and was the veteran who really lifted that whole organization and they were in the conference finals very quickly. I think that’s the kind of bounce that they’re hoping to get from Dame Lillard. I’m just saying they’re kind of split. They have Jeremy Grant who is under contract there. They have Drew Holiday under contract there. These are veteran players that are designed to win and being paid to win now. And then they’ve got this quartet of young guys. You look at Scoot Henderson, you look at Donovan Clinging, you look at uh Yang Hansen who they is a lot of excitement around and sort of like they’re half young, half veteran and we’re in an era where every dollar you spend ends up being important when you’re battling with the apron. So what I think in all honesty is I think they were going along with their planning and all of a sudden Dame Lillard landed on the market and they said we cannot say no to this. Whether or not they’re betting on it, I can understand why they feel that way, but it doesn’t fit into what their planning was in my view. We saw the Portland Trailblazers closed the end of last season with an impressive defensiveminded run here. They’re looking with Damen Lillard now the highest paid assistant coach that we’ve ever seen back on their bench that they’ll be able to capitalize on that again. Does it translate to postseason success? I’m not sure that’s how we’re measuring the Portland Trailblazers, but I like seeing Dane back home. Little top of the top summer league edition here. You’re gonna notice all these themes. The jackpot shots. Yep. This is all gonna be Vegas themed. Oh man, the handle was wild. Javon Small. Nothing small about that. Look at that behind the back. Clean fillet. Tough finish here. And then got Jameson Battle. Do you think he called bank on that one, Ramona? Uh, yes, absolutely. We’re going to go with Yeah. He was laughing, so probably not. No. 4 seconds left. He takes it to the bank. That one’s tough, though. Next up, we got the double down denial. You were talking about Yang Hansen and the amount of attention that he’s going to get at this summer league. It is amazing. I actually did TV in uh in with China. It is They love him over there. Five and a half assist. Oh, Jaylen Slawson though. That’s not polite at all. LeBron James approves. And then Jesse Edwards. Okay. Okay. Verticality clean. Squatted that all the way into the stands. One more look at that one from above the rim. Yep, that’s clean. Next up, Venetian Vision. This is the best dimes you can count. Oh, that was pretty. Ooh, slick little pass there. What else we got, sis? Oh. Oh, Damen B. The touch pass. Queens. Like, come on. Behind the back. Boom. Two-handed. You’re champion. Smooth play all around. Champion Hornets. We had to bring uh Yuki back here. Oh, fan favorite. Speaking of fan favorite, he’s been in the league, so he knows. Mhm. Yeah, but I mean, they were not ready. Last, we have high roller hang time. This is the top dunks. I was in the building. Oh, now I’m getting the theme. It took me a while. See, it’s like high roller Irving is loving it. That was the emphatic slam. BJ Edge. This is what he does. Yeah, we’re going to be seeing a lot of a lot of Sixers. No defense. Business decision. And then number one, Johnny Fury. Yeah. Oh my gosh. This is a tomahawk of the summer. That was not familiar. I hurt my shoulder just watching that.

On NBA Today, Brian Windhorst, Ramona Shelburne, Bobby Marks and Chiney Ogwumike discuss their expectations for the Portland Trail Blazers after adding Damian Lillard back to the team.

0:00 Dame’s introductory press conference
1:45 Blazers’ expectations
9:22 Top of the Top: Summer League

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