The Portland Trail Blazers enter the 2020-21 NBA season with a remade roster and plenty of optimism. Anybody who’s watched the team over the past seven seasons knows that Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum will provide the fulcrum around which franchise fortune pivots. Nothing has changed there. The weight of the lever is far greater this year, or at least has the potential to be.
If the Blazers hope to contend, they will need a few, specific things to happen. Tomorrow we’ll look at team-wide factors, but today we’re going to concentrate on three, specific keys embodied by four players.