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Portland Trail Blazers
Since drafting Damian Lillard in 2012, the Portland TrailBlazers have made it to the Playoffs five of the six possible times. They were able to transition from losing four starters in the summer of 2015 to playing well in a tough Western Conference with a young and more or less inexperienced team.
Having said that, they've been disappointing to a certain extent, reaching the Conference Semifinals only two of the five times and each of the two times, losing the series in 5 games. In the most recent postseason, they got swept by the Pelicans in the first round, something the entire franchise will have to bounce back from given that they were the best of the rest in the West as the 3rd seed.
Either way, it's about time they make some noise by landing some legitimate free agents who can actually help their team and not sign their current players to bad huge contracts. Here are a few guys they could target to surround Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
2019 Free Agency Targets:
Joe Ingles: The Australian was talked about a lot post playoff series win against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he was able to slow down and hold his own against Paul George which frankly proved to be the difference makers in 2 games. Moreover, Ingles can be a brilliant addition to the Portland roster, because the Blazers had the lowest assists as a team, Ingles in the absence of Rubio in games managed plenty of double-doubles. Thus the Lillard and McCollum can put most of their focus on offense and let Ingles handle the defence and assists.
Trevor Ariza: Ariza even at 33 made a name for himself in the 2017-18 season because of the excellent defensive capabilities he displayed during the season and also against the western conference finals against the Warriors. A brilliant 3nD player the addition of Ariza would only cost them about 10 million and also take some load off Lillard who will be able to move and pass the ball around and not have the whole responsibility of initiating offense all the time.
