Blazers apparently have decided 50 wins is the goal

The Trail Blazers aren’t rebuilding anymore. At least they sure don’t look like it.

Portland won 42 games last season and returned to the playoffs. Then it added Ja Morant, welcomed Damian Lillard back and handed the whole thing to new coach Micah Nori.

So, yeah. Expectations have changed. Lillard, for one, isn’t backing away from them.

“If our mentality is right, and we handle it right … I think we can be a tough time for everybody,” Lillard said at Media Day, via Oregon Public Broadcasting.

That’s one way to put it. Portland now has Lillard, Morant and reigning All-Star Deni Avdija, along with Jrue Holiday, Scoot Henderson and Donovan Clingan.

There are legitimate questions about how all of those pieces fit. Lillard didn’t play last season while recovering from a torn Achilles. Morant appeared in only 20 games. There is only one basketball. Still, nobody in Portland seems particularly bothered.

“I think the balance will work itself out,” Lillard said.

Maybe it will. The Blazers already made the playoffs without Lillard and Morant contributing a single minute to that run. Now both are here.

Nobody needs to hang a championship banner in September. But thinking small would seem kind of silly, too.