Portland Trail Blazers fans remember it like it was yesterday — watching Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum lead the team to the conference finals in 2019 for the first time since 2000. That was the closest Portland came to winning a championship with the Lillard-McCollum duo. The Trail Blazers were first-round exits the next two years.
In the middle of the 2021-22 season, they traded McCollum to the Pelicans, ending his eight-and-a-half seasons in Portland. He continued his streak of averaging 20+ points per season in New Orleans, which began in the 2015-16 season. Maybe that trend will continue with the Wizards next season after the Pelicans traded him to Washington this summer.