I think this could be an interesting discussion. Dame deserves it for EVERYTHING he did. CJ for improving his game so much. Harkless for wading through the bench for a few months and then showing up like a boss. Plums for being a point/center and his improved FT shooting Aminu for his production (albeit inconsistent) Maybe even Terry Stotts? The guy made key adjustments throughout the season and did a damn good job with finding quality rotations.
CJ - got most improved and we and we pretty much have the 2nd best backcourt in the league we already had 1 half of it, but CJ really made it click this season.
I voted CJ because I think his emergence took a lot of pressure off of Dame. Dame would have faced an entirely different task without CJ. You could make a valid argument for Dame because of his leadership, but at the end of the day you can only lead those willing to follow. Gotta give it up to the guys who bought into what Lillard said and put in the hard work to achieve what they did.
Give it to the team. They played as a team, put in work as a team, and developed a really fun to watch team oriented culture. Paul and neil decided fuck these guys like lamarsha that arent down with rip city from day one and asked people do you want tl play for the portland trail blazers? We gave these guys who were coasting through the league a sense of pride. Dame loves rip city, he spouts off our team name with pride. He slips it into his silly commercial raps. We finally have a team that the most loyal fan base in the NBA deserves.
I'm gonna give it to Dame this year but I bet next year CJ will be the better player; he's special too.
You give the game ball to another player than Dame it's a slap in the face. He is our franchise player and the player that the Blazers are committed to.
If that's the case and we have both Dame and C.J. this could be another Lillard/Aldridge scenario. Do you like people even friends stepping on your feet at work?