NBA

The Trail Blazers have scheduled a "major announcement," but the team has made it clear that it will be Lillard winning his award. It will be interesting to see a breakdown of the voting, and Lillard will become the fourth player in Blazers team history to win the award. He finished the season with averages of 19 points, 6.5 assists, 3.1 rebounds and made 185 3-pointers, the most by a rookie in NBA history. He also led the league in total minutes with 3,167. The kid is going to be special.

"They have a path they want to go down, and it's pretty obvious I'm not on it right now," Smith said during his exit interview. Smith added the team made it "pretty clear" that they don't want him to return, and now Smith will be playing with a chip on his shoulder wherever he lands. Right now, he's best known as the guy drafted ahead of Kenneth Faried in 2011.

Will Barton already said he'll be part of the team and Elliot Williams is willing if the Blazers retrain him. Leonard, Claver and Freeland were part of a massive youth movement in Portland this season and the Blazers need them to develop into at least solid rotational players, if not starters in Freeland and Leonard's cases.

Matthews sustained a pretty severe sprain on April 7 and missed the final five games of the season. It's not a long-term concern. He'll return next season as the clear-cut starting shooting guard once again. Matthews ranked fifth in the league in 3-pointers made per game in 2012-13 at 2.4 a night. Only Steph Curry, Ryan Anderson, Klay Thompson and Kyle Korver averaged more.

Batum's injuries were bad enough that he sat out the final eight games of the season. However, it looks like he'll avoid surgery and should enter next year at 100 percent. Batum and Kevin Durant were the only players to average at least one block, one steal and one 3-pointer this season. He's a second-round fantasy pick at worst in 2013-14.

Barton struggled to find minutes for most of the season but did take advantage when given a starting role, averaging 15.2 points 6.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game in five starts this season. Those averages are encouraging, but most of the production came with Portland's lineup decimated by injuries. Barton will have to work on his shooting this summer if he wants to earn consistent minutes (and fantasy consideration) next season. The second-round pick shot just 38.2 percent from the field and 13.8 percent from 3-point range.

They'd better be. The Blazers have significant cap space in the offseason, and just about everyone is expecting some type of splash this summer. "We're going to be aggressive to construct a deal to make the team better on draft night," he said. The team will attempt to use draft picks to acquire a true, starting center, which is the priority in free agency if one isn't landed via trade. The Oregonian suggets Marcin Gortat could be a potential trade target.