Way back during the 2014-15 NBA regular season, the Portland Trail Blazers were on fire and steadily climbing up the rankings as a team that NBA fans and those in the NBA community were really looking at as a threat to win an NBA Championship. All the pieces were in place, they were healthy and they made a move to bring in a backup wing to solidify the Blazers rotation.
At the trade deadline they acquired Arron Afflalo and they were third in the Western Conference with the fourth best record in the NBA.
Then, the threat became less menacing once the injury bug took its turn on the Blazers roster.
Robin Lopez fought an injury through a majority of the season, LaMarcus Aldridge tore a hand ligament that was once believed to end his season but he fought through it because of the Blazers success but then came the final straw broke the camel’s back. Wesley Matthews tore his achilles and it went all downhill from there, in more ways than one.
The Blazers struggled, were eliminated in the first round of the NBA playoffs by the Memphis Grizzlies and in the summer, they lost LaMarcus Aldridge among other pieces. For the Blazers, it appeared that Aldridge’s path to departure started with the Wesley Matthews injury.
Following from Blazers GM Neil Olshey on Zach Lowe’s podcast, ‘The Lowe Post’.
Because of how unhappy LaMarcus was when we all joined the Trail Blazers. You know, myself, Terry (Stotts), our regime. It wasn’t like we were put on notice, Zach, but I think we were all aware it was going to be an uphill battle. I think it was an uphill battle we had fought and won right up until Wes (Matthews) was injured. We had contingencies in place and we always knew with that group, we were going to do everything we could to support that group of players and bring talent and put it around them to make a run at winning as high of a level as humanly possible. We felt like it reached its apex with the (Arron) Afflalo trade at the deadline. We really felt we had a chance to compete for a championship.
Wes got hurt…Arron didn’t have time to assimilate into our style of play. So much of what we do is based on chemistry, so that didn’t pan out the way we had hoped.
We were 100% confident in LaMarcus right up through the trade and then when Wes got hurt and we weren’t playing as well and we realized our margins for error with that group was more narrow than what we would’ve liked to believe. I think we felt like we’re going to have more of a battle on our hands than we anticipated in terms of keeping LaMarcus.
I think if we had stayed 100% healthy with our roster, I don’t think this ever becomes an issue.
Looking back on it, that was the most pivotal moment in the Blazers season and there wasn’t a shortage of people who believed the team would rebound from losing Wes so close to the playoffs. Aldridge was already battling injuries and the Blazers didn’t have a quick fix on either the defensive or offensive end to replace Matthews’ production.
Damian Lillard, Nicolas Batum and Arron Afflalo tried but it didn’t work out. Afflalo struggled, Lillard couldn’t defend anyone on the perimeter and Batum’s offense was absent. The Blazers’ season didn’t work out how they wanted it to and then their offseason went completely south. Aldridge went to the Spurs, Matthews went to the Mavs, Batum was traded to the Hornets, Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo went to the Knicks and the Blazers were left with future prospects that Olshey is excited about but a group fans might not be too enamored with.
Don’t get it twisted though, that Blazers team would’ve been a force to be reckoned with if the injury bug flew away from them for at least a few more months.
