The 2012–13 Portland Trail Blazers season was the 43rd season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The offseason saw the team draft a pair of first round draft picks, future All-Star Damian Lillard was taken 6th overall and Meyers Leonard was taken 11th overall. Despite the team finishing off 11th place in the Western Conference with a mediocre 33–49 record including a 13-game losing streak to finish, Lillard enjoyed a stellar rookie season, winning Rookie of the Year honors for his efforts.

The Blazers would not miss the playoffs again until 2022.

Key dates

• June 28: The 2012 NBA draft took place at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.^[1]
• July 1: Free agency started and players were allowed to negotiate contracts with new or their old teams.
• July 11: Ten-day moratorium ended; players were allowed to sign contracts with new or their old teams and teams were allowed to resume making trades.

Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	School
1	6	Damian Lillard	PG	United States	Weber State
1	11	Meyers Leonard	C	United States	Illinois
2	40	Will Barton	SG	United States	Memphis
2	41	Tyshawn Taylor (traded to Brooklyn)	PG	United States	Kansas

Roster

2012–13 Portland Trail Blazers roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB From F/C 12 Aldridge, LaMarcus (C) 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 240 lb (109 kg) 1985–07–19 Texas F 8 Babbitt, Luke 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1989-06-20 Nevada G 5 Barton, Will 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 170 lb (77 kg) 1991–01–06 Memphis G/F 88 Batum, Nicolas 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 200 lb (91 kg) 1988–12–14 France F 18 Claver, Víctor 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 224 lb (102 kg) 1988–08–30 Spain F/C 19 Freeland, Joel 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1987–02–07 United Kingdom F/C 21 Hickson, J. J. 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 242 lb (110 kg) 1988–09–04 NC State F/C 1 Jeffries, Jared 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 240 lb (109 kg) 1981–11–25 Indiana C 11 Leonard, Meyers 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 245 lb (111 kg) 1992–02–27 Illinois G 0 Lillard, Damian 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 195 lb (88 kg) 1990–07–15 Weber State G/F 2 Matthews, Wesley 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1986–10–14 Marquette G 6 Maynor, Eric 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 175 lb (79 kg) 1987–06–11 VCU G/F 3 Pavlović, Sasha 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 235 lb (107 kg) 1983–11–15 Yugoslavia G 4 Smith, Nolan 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1988–07–25 Duke G 9 Williams, Elliot  6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 180 lb (82 kg) 1989–06–20 Memphis	Head coach Terry Stotts Assistant coach(es) Kaleb Canales Kim Hughes Dale Osbourne Jay Triano David Vanterpool Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended (DL) On assignment to D-League affiliate Injured Roster Last transaction: 2012–09–01

Pre-season

Regular season

Awards and records

On December 5, 2012, Damian Lillard was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for November, making him the third rookie in Blazers history to earn the honor, following Arvydas Sabonis (1994) and Brandon Roy (2007). When asked about the honor, Lillard stated "I’m happy that I can get it, but I think all that it says is that I played good for one month. My mind has been focused on being consistent for the whole season, so ... it's a big deal to win the award, but it's not a big deal for the season. I’ll be happy about it and then it’ll be gone. It's a new month already."^[2]

Injuries

Reserve guard Elliot Williams tore his left Achilles tendon during a team workout on September 9. He was out for the season.^[3]

Transactions

References