The Blazers are stuck in one of the worst places to be in the NBA and may be headed toward an implosion

• The Blazers are off to a rough start and stuck in a cycle of mediocrity.
• They need to land a star to pair with Damian Lillard, but don't have many avenues to do so.

It's often said that being stuck in the middle of the pack is one of the hardest places to be in the NBA — too good to build through the draft, but not good enough to compete late into the playoffs.

This is where the Portland Trail Blazers currently stand, and it feels like it can't last.

At 11-14, the team boasts the league's worst defense and is off to an uninspiring start — one that has featured new head coach Chauncey Billups openly questioning the team's heart and desire.

Last Friday, the team fired Neil Olshey, the president of basketball operations, after an investigation found he had fostered a hostile work environment.

Though the Blazers have made the playoffs eight straight years, they've lost in the first round in the past two seasons.

The roster, built around the starry back-court of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, simply never reached the level of true championship contention. They made the conference finals in 2019, where the Golden State Warriors swept them. Otherwise, they've won two playoff series over those eight years.

It's a stretch of success many franchises would be envious of, but for a team chasing championships around a superstar's prime, it's nonetheless an era largely defined by underperforming.

This mediocrity prompted Lillard to openly question the team's direction and his future with the franchise over the offseason. He ultimately never asked out of Portland, perhaps in part because Olshey publicly asserted that the roster could perform better with a coaching change — a declaration that hasn't played out.

Now, with The Athletic's Shams Charania and Sam Amick reporting that Lillard wants to play with disgruntled Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons, it feels as though the Blazers are at a crossroads. With the man who built the team out of a job, the new head coach off to a shaky start, and an increasingly discontented franchise player, the Blazers are running out of avenues to reach the next level, and they face a tear-down if they don't.

The Blazers are nearly out of avenues to improve

If the Blazers are still looking to make the leap into championship contention, they are nearly out of moves.

Their last big trade chip is McCollum, but it's unclear how attractive an asset he is. For all of his scoring prowess (22 points per game over the last seven seasons), he's a 30-year-old undersized guard still owed $69 million over the next two years.

McCollum will raise any team's hypothetical floor, but how much he can raise a team's ceiling is unclear. In other words: how many teams think they're a C.J. McCollum away from competing for a championship? And how many of those teams have something to offer the Blazers in return that will make Portland better?

This is why the Simmons trade idea that Charania reported is so intriguing — there are few better fits for a deal. McCollum would add needed ball-handling and shooting to the 76ers, while Simmons would be an elite, multi-talented big that Lillard hasn't played alongside. (Of course, the Sixers would prefer to land Lillard in a trade, but they may not get so lucky.)

However, Charania previously reported that the Sixers asked the Blazers for McCollum, three first-round picks, plus three pick swaps for Simmons — a borderline absurd price. Such a deal would also leave the Blazers few options to improve the team beyond adding Simmons, like a floor-stretching center, as The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor suggested.

And if Portland can't get a deal done for Simmons, their options look slim. There aren't many superstars available at the moment. Portland does own all of their first-round picks after 2022, but the value of those picks is unclear — if Portland makes a win-now move to go all-in around Lillard, those picks are likely to be late first-rounders.

The Blazers have to ponder the idea of trading Lillard at a minimum, unsavory as it may seem. Though Lillard is an All-NBA talent, one of the NBA's 75 greatest players, he is also 31 years old. His trade value will likely never be higher with four years left on his contract. The Blazers could get a bundle of picks, plus some promising young players in exchange for Lillard to kickstart a rebuild.

Of course, that's easier said than done. Portland is a small-market team and not a free-agent destination. Trading arguably the franchise's all-time best player to kick off a stretch of 20-win seasons without ever having truly gone for it — that is, going all the way in on a championship — could prove to be a decision that haunts the organization. After all, rebuilds and the draft lottery are not sure things.

The Blazers are surely grappling with how to maximize Lillard's prime before he does ask out. Because if he does, the team's path will be made for them.