Buy Or Sell: Can Lillard, Blazers Maintain Current Hot Streak This Season?

The 2022-23 NBA season has seen a lot of players miss time due to an injury bug that appears to have stricken all 30 teams and franchises who were projected to be barely considered competitive finding themselves at the top of their conferences.

One of those teams is the Western Conference-leading Portland Trail Blazers.

Entering the new season, there was little expectation of the Blazers being where they are at as they made seemingly minimal moves during the offseason.

Re-signing Anfernee Simons to a four-year, $100 million deal was seen as their move to replace the departure of CJ McCollum and deciding to keep both Jusuf Nurkic (four years, $70 million) and Drew Eubanks (one year, $1.9 million) were highly expected.

However, them hawking Gary Payton II from the defending NBA champions Golden State Warriors and swinging a major trade deal for prized asset Jerami Grant surprised the NBA landscape.

Grant was acquired by the Blazers by trading 2022 second-round draft pick Gabriele Procida, a 2025 first-rounder via the Milwaukee Bucks, and their own second-round picks in 2025 and 2026.

Many saw the trade as the Blazers fleecing the Pistons for a high-caliber talent like Grant, but the fact remains the Blazers were able to strengthen themselves by making this move.

It is worth noting at this point that the Blazers only lost combo guard Eric Bledsoe during the offseason while seemingly inexplicably strengthening their group at the same time.

2022 seventh-overall pick Shaedon Sharpe has been providing Portland with some much-needed offense off the bench in 21 minutes of action.

With all of this in mind, now comes the time to ask whether the Blazers should be seen as a legitimate team that can make noise come April.

The Blazers currently rank 12th in offensive rating (112.3) and seventh in defensive rating (109.9) after only allowing 107.6 points per game (sixth in the NBA) while scoring 109.7 points per game (22nd in the league).

Based on the stats, the Blazers are where they are mainly because of their defense which has been anchored by the frontcourt partnership of Nurkic and Grant, but the impact of Josh Hart at small forward should not be belittled as well.

Despite averaging single digits in points and shooting at 42.6 percent from the field, Hart's ability to stay in front of his man while funneling them towards either Grant or Nurkic has been a big part of Portland's run thus far.

Fourth-year forward Nassir Little has also provided them with some much-needed wing defense as a 3-and-D specialist.

This is still Damian Lillard's team, there is no doubt about that, but having some help on defense is allowing him to focus on what he does best which is getting buckets. It should also be noted that Lillard is on pace to break his career-high 46.3% shooting from the field if he keeps things up.

With the Blazers narrowly losing to the Brooklyn Nets, they are still the top dogs of the Western Conference for now.

Will they be able to maintain their spot atop the conference? The stats would say yes, but it would be difficult to see them staving off the likes of the Phoenix Suns, Memphis Grizzlies and even the supposedly tanking Utah Jazz down the road.

However with big-name teams like the Warriors, the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, and even the Minnesota Timberwolves being relegated to 12th, 14th, ninth, and 10th respectively, the West is up for grabs.

As long as Lillard, Grant and Nurkic can stay healthy, the Blazers have as best a shot in finishing with a top seed this season.