A Decade Dissecting the Trail Blazers

Ten years ago, LaMarcus Aldridge said goodbye to Oregon, prompting a new era for the Portland Trail Blazers. A month after Aldridge signed with the San Antonio Spurs, this writer was accepted by Dave Deckard to join the Blazer’s Edge team.

As a 30-year-old Australian journalist, it was a thrill to write for the site that had refined my knowledge of the game I’d spent years following from afar. Up until that point my day job was writing news for metropolitan daily and weekly newspapers in my native Melbourne. I’d gone to university and completed a journalism cadetship before battling through a career in an industry that was, and still is, slowly dying — eventually prompting a move into media and communications.

While my journalistic skills would serve me at Blazer’s Edge, I knew I’d be starting off as a dog’s body news writer, putting together whatever became available. This entry-level status was typified by my first piece highlighting Spaniard Victor Claver’s signing in Russia after three years with the Blazers. While I was probably one of the few Claver fans out there, being able to author my own Blazer’s Edge story was far and away the bigger news in my eyes.

As personal lives and careers ebb and flow in intensity, my contributions to the website were best described as sporadic through my first five years at Blazer’s Edge. We all have our day jobs, but humans also need to allocate extracurricular time to whatever stage of life they’re at. If you’re carefree and single, there’s a need to be social, if you’re focusing on your career, extra hours will need to be put in at the office. For those in long-term relationships and/or with kids, these cherished parts of existence also require a pretty hefty amount of devotion.

But as my wife and I awaited the birth of our daughter in 2021, Dave offered me something I will always be thankful for, my own weekly column, informally entitled Adrian’s Angles.

He gave me the freedom to focus on the topic of my choosing in the weekly Saturday (Sunday for me) piece, as long as it was thought-provoking and relevant. While not my finest moment, my first piece asked whether Anfernee Simons was a younger version of Norman Powell.

Each column since has allowed me to hone a critical lens, refining my approach. The repetition has helped me identify my strengths and where I need to do my homework, even now as a 40-year-old who has spent the past quarter of my life covering this team.

The marking of this milestone has also prompted a look back at where the Blazers have come over the past 10 years.

I’ve got no doubt most remember what happened to the Blazers during the summer of 2015. On top of losing Aldridge, the Blazers let Wesley Matthews Jr and Robin Lopez walk after trading Nicolas Batum to the Charlotte Hornets for Noah Vonleh and Gerald Henderson Jr.

They signed Al-Farouq Aminu and Ed Davis and traded a never to be conveyed second round pick to the Orlando Magic for Maurice Harkless. Earlier in the offseason, the franchise also traded Steve Blake and the rights to Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for Mason Plumlee and the rights to Pat Connaughton.

These additions were to join Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum as the team turned a new page, which somehow resulted in a second round playoff appearance that first season. But unfortunately, aside from that 2019 Western Conference Finals run, the Blazers never made it further than the first round of the playoffs in each of the ensuing years.

A half decade of relative mediocrity as the Blazers’ star point guard aged out of his prime.

In late 2021, Neil Olshey was fired and another rebuild was officially underway, again with Lillard at the center. This time, the transition wasn’t as rosy as the 2015 rebuild with tensions reaching fever pitch during the summer of 2023 following the drafting of Scoot Henderson. We now watch to see if this current group can reach loftier heights.

If I’m picking highlights from the past 10 years, it’s Lillard’s shot over Paul George and the ensuing seven-game second round series against the Denver Nuggets.

But I also look back on the smaller wins. There’s been the recent rise of the Deni Avdija-Toumani Camara tandem, Jake Layman’s momentary stardom in 2018-19. Spending part of our honeymoon in Portland in late 2019 watching the Blazers in person before COVID interrupted things for a while.

There’s Lillard’s Bubble performance and solo effort against the Nuggets during the 2021 NBA Playoffs a few months later. Of course, there was Nurkmania, the 2016 playoff run and the famous game 82 performance by the young guys (Simons, Trent Jr, Layman, Labissiere) in 2019.

There’s been some pretty demoralizing moments too. The Pelicans dismantling the higher-seed Blazers in four games in 2018, Lillard’s departure and the contracts handed to Evan Turner, Allen Crabbe and Meyers Leonard in 2016. The waste of Lillard’s prime highlighted by regular first round exits and the Western Conference Finals sweep. Not to mention the trading of two first round picks for an ageing Robert Covington and the pick obligation, the Blazers are still beholden to, to get Larry Nance Jr who spent mere months in Portland.

It certainly hasn’t been the greatest 10-year period in Blazers history, but selfishly there’s always been something to write about. Covering this team wouldn’t be as satisfying as is without you, the readers. We don’t always agree but it is a true joy to interact with you all from the other side of the world, every week. It’s this interaction that prompted my joining of Blazer’s Edge a decade ago. I’ve cherished, and will continue to cherish, every moment with this community because it’s been such an important part of my life. Go Blazers.