Last summer, former Portland Trail Blazers All-NBA point guard Damian Lillard finally demanded to be traded to a contender after spending two straight seasons in the lottery with the club. He landed with the Milwaukee Bucks, where the now 34-year-old clearly became second fiddle to All-NBA power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. The duo helped the team survive the head coach’s midseason firing and secure third place in the Eastern Conference with a good, but not great, 49-33 record, but fell to the Indiana Pacers in a six-game series as both Antetokounmpo and Lillard missed multiple games due to injury.
During an appearance on former Bucks champion and one-time Atlanta Hawks All-Star point guard Jeff Teague’s must-listen “Club 520” podcast, Lillard revealed that he believes he could have won a championship during his tenure in Portland – had All-NBA power forward/center LaMarcus Aldridge not left as a free agent for the San Antonio Spurs in 2016. The club, led by Aldridge and All-NBA swingman Kawhi Leonard, won 67 games and reached the Western Conference Finals in 2017.
“One of the most underrated players,” Lillard said of Aldridge. “In the pick-and-roll with him, he’s great and hits every jump. I throw him the ball on the block, (the opposing teams) will get it, I’m alone.”
Lillard then boldly spoke about the potential he and Aldridge would bring to the team.
“If (Aldridge) had never gone to San Antonio, we would have won at least once,” Lillard reflected. “I would have been in my element, but he was so good.”
That’s a bold claim considering how crowded the Western Conference was during the rest of Aldridge’s prime. That same summer, 14-time All-Star power forward Kevin Durant, one of the best and most complete all-around scorers in league history, teamed up with the NBA’s all-time best 3-point shooter, 10-time All-Star point guard Stephen Curry, and two other future Hall of Famers, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, on the Golden State Warriors and promptly reached three straight NBA Finals.
In 2020, after Durant’s departure, All-NBA superstars LeBron James and Anthony Davis teamed up on a 3-and-D-heavy Los Angeles Lakers team and outlasted the Miami Heat en route to their only title together (so far). The West’s representatives in the following two seasons, the 2021 Phoenix Suns and a 2022 Warriors team without Durant, were certainly easier to beat, but by that point, Aldridge was past his All-Star prime. He finished his career with the Brooklyn Nets (where he was finally teammates with Durant) that summer as a bench substitute.
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