Blazers guard Damian Lillard ruled out for remainder of season

The white flag is being waved in Portland.

With the Blazers sitting at 32-43, five games behind theOklahoma City Thunder for the final play-in spot, it's fair to saythe playoffs probably aren't in the cards this season. That realityhas reportedly led the Blazers to shut down their superstar, DamianLillard, for the rest of the year.

With injury-plagued Portland Trail Blazersout of the playoff picture, superstar guard Damian Lillard will beheld out the remainder of the season, league sources tell @NBAonTNT,@BleacherReport.

Lillard had already missed the last three games (all losses)with a calf injury. In light of the Blazers' place in the standings— and the benefit that could be gained by juicing their lotteryodds — it makes sense that the Blazers would take aforward-thinking approach with Lillard.

It's a somber end to what's been, at least statistically,the best offensive season inLillard's career. He posted career-highs in points (32.2), 2PT%(57.4), True Shooting percentage (64.5), three-point rate (.547)and attempts (11.3), free-throw rate (.464) and attempts (9.6), andassist rate (35.1).

The rest of his box score numbers — 7.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds, a37.1% clip from three and 91.4% mark from the free throw line —certainly pass the smell test.

He currently leads the NBA in DunksAndThree's OffensiveEstimated Plus-Minus (oEPM) metric (+8.1), narrowly ahead of MVPshortlist candidate Nikola Jokic (+8.0). He ranks fifth inEstimated Wins (EW), the cumulative version of EPM, with 14.0. Heonly trails Jokic (17.2), Joel Embiid (14.8), Jayson Tatum (14.4)and Luka Doncic (14.3) in that stat.

Lillard was a worthy All-Star and, in the games he appeared in,a no-brainer selection for an All-NBA team. With him only appearingin 58 games (27-31 record), I'm curious to see where the votersland with his case. There's no question Lillard played well enough,but there's room to argue against his candidacy depending on howhighly availability and winning rank in a voter's mind.

Bigger picture, the Blazers enter the offseason with the sameset of big questions. Can they build a contender around Lillard?How, with their current asset pool, can they do so? And consideringwhat the rest of the conference looks like right now, does it makesense to cash in their chips to build around Lillard, or would itmake more sense to use Lillard asthechip tojumpstart a rebuild?

If it's up to Lillard — and please, please stop askinghim, he's been clear about his desires! — the Blazers will continuetrying to build around him. That'll start with landing on anacceptable number with Jerami Grant, then likely move to evaluatingthe market for upgrades in the frontcourt.

We have plenty of time to dig into potential offseason moves.For now, Lillard deserves his flowers for an incredible year.

He stretched defenses to their limits with long-distance bombs.He parlayed that shooting gravity into his most efficient season asa driver. Those drives allowed him to further lean into thefoul-drawing tricks he's developed throughout his career. And theconstant attention he drew opened up passing windows for him toaccess when necessary.

Oh, right: he also dropped the most efficient 70+ point game inNBA history this year. Can't forget that.

Hopefully Lillard is able to rehab and recharge. I have no ideahow youbuildon a campaign as ridiculous asLillard's, but he's proven to be someone you can't comfortably betagainst.