For many of the Portland Trail Blazers’ supporters, the spring of 2019 represents the peak of the previous decade, a time in which Portland had its best chance to deliver another much-awaited championship to the Pacific Northwest. For others, it’ll always be arguable that, if fully-healthy, the 2014-15 version could’ve surpassed even those expectations.
Regardless of one’s standing in that discussion, it can’t be debated that the Blazers’ title window was much more open than it is today. In an in-depth piece yesterday, (subscription required), ESPN’s Zach Lowe traced back what went wrong, the lead-up to Damian Lillard’s potentially-soon-to-be departure, and how the seeds were planted for that breakup all the way back in 2015, a time period in which the Blazers temporarily boasted an argument as the NBA’s No.