Blazers Season Preview: Damian Lillard leads

• WHAT: 41 Portland Trail Blazers home games, starting Saturday and running until the season finale on April 16.

• WHERE: Moda Center at the Rose Quarter, 1 Center Court, Portland, 97227. The arena, which opened in 1995, has a listed capacity of 19,880 for basketball. It is located just south of NE Broadway Street and just west of Interstate 5.

• DIRECTIONS: From Vancouver, take Interstate 5 south and take exit 302 toward Rose Quarter/ City Center.

• PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: The Yellow Line on MAX, Portland’s light-rail system, can be boarded at either the Expo Center station or the Delta Park/Vanport station and has a stop at the Rose Quarter.

• TICKETS: According to Blazers.com, ticket prices vary from game to game depending upon demand. Seats for Saturday’s home opener against the San Antonio Spurs range from $24 to $208 on the team’s Web site; tickets for the game against Detroit on Nov. 11 are as low as $12. Multiple-game ticket packages and discounts are available.

• AVAILABILITY: The Blazers in recent years have boasted of having a long sellout streak, but tickets are readily available for most games. Check Blazers.com or test the secondary ticket market at StubHub.com.

Last year on the way to an NBA Rookie of the Year award, Damian Lillard he was mentioned in the same breath as Allen Iverson, Oscar Robertson and LeBron James.

Entering his second season, Lillard now has an all-star personality to match his game.

On the court, Lillard helped re-energize a Portland team that now has the playoffs as a goal.

Beyond the court, his presence and creativity on social media, as well as commercial appearances for Adidas and the NBA, has gained the attention of fans nationwide.

His latest and most successful social media idea was a rap contest done through the Instagram app. It involves videos of no more than 15 seconds called “4 Bar Friday.”

“I’ve always been like that. I always come up with my own stuff,” he says. “I sit down and I write stuff down. I take notes on everything, whether it’s going to be an app that I want to do, I take note on everything that I think of.”

Since the weekly contest started, several NBA players such as Indiana’s Paul George and Portland teammates Mo Williams and C.J. McCollum have participated.

Lillard has mentioned trying to get the game’s biggest stars — such as James and Kevin Durant — in on the fun, as well.

Lillard also made headlines around the league this summer after contacting a fan who wanted to meet him. He ended up taking a picture with him.

Lillard even began coming up with his own fan fiction commercial ideas on Twitter and getting his followers to contribute some too, for the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man In the World.”

Projects like the “License To Lillard” mini-documentaries on YouTube give fans an inside look at Lillard’s life.

Lillard doesn’t want fans to be just fans of him as a basketball player.

“I mean, it’s all genuine,” he said. “It’s no reasoning behind it, but that’s who I am. I want them to know that that’s who I am.”

Lillard’s creative ideas and ambition to be successful comes in part from his family, he says. It also comes from a group of friends he had in Oakland, Calif., a group that goes by a term that Lillard has tattooed on his right arm.

Fly Guy.

“Like, in college it was always ‘The Fly Guy,’ like everybody at Weber State would be like ‘Fly Guy Dame’ and stuff like that,” he said. “But, my older cousin started that.”

It was Lillard’s cousin P.J., who lived with the him his whole life back in Oakland, that coined the term that defined a group of ambitious Oakland individuals who wanted to be successful when Lillard was growing up.

“He started that in the neighborhood when I was a kid. Now, it was me in college and Steve Johnson (Buffalo Bills) in the NFL, he does the Fly Guy. I mean, it’s just creativity. We’re not afraid to come up with something and actually let people hear about it.”

Johnson famously quoted The Joker from “The Dark Knight” and wrote “Why So Serious?” on his shirt to celebrate a touchdown against Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco, who were referring to themselves at the time as Batman and Robin.

Working to be elite

While the Fly Guy Dame is connecting with fans and thinking of new ideas or inventions to through the Damian Lillard brand, Lillard the basketball player is facing a deep Western Conference and is expected to lead a team contending for a playoff berth.

Last season, injuries decimated the Blazers down the stretch leading to a franchise long 13-game losing streak. At times, Lillard was the most experienced Trail Blazer on the court, forcing him to lead.

He said those games played “a big part” in his being ready as an on-court general coming into this season.

Terry Stotts has emphasized defense throughout training camp. Lillard has echoed his coach, showing a desire to get better mentally and physically on defense and rallying the troops in the process.

“Especially in the NBA, your team takes on the personality of its best players. It starts with LaMarcus (Aldridge) and Damian and Nic (Batum). They know how important defense is for us,” Stotts said. “That makes it easier for everybody else.”

“Leadership is one thing, his work ethic, he comes in and works hard before and after practice,” new teammate and 10-year veteran Dorell Wright said on what he’s seen from Lillard compared to other great players he’s played with.

“You have a guy that’s been The Rookie of The Year and most guys have a great first year and they kind of take a step back as far as their work ethic,” added Wright, who has played alongside great players such as Dwyane Wade and Stephen Curry.

Lillard said that his expectations for himself, whether it’s this year or every year, will always be higher than those placed on him by fans or media.

There are ideas that will be written down, new levels of efficiency to get to, the desire to be known as one of the NBA’s elite players in the coming years and of course, the “four bar Fridays” to judge.

As his second season approaches, Portland’s Fly Guy is concerned most of all with the only thing that matters for him, his team and where they want to go next.

“This season I just want to win games.”

Trail Blazers Roster

12 LaMarcus Aldridge

• Height/weight: 6-11/250

• Age: 28

• College: University of Texas, No.2 overall pick in 2006 draft

• Of note: Earned his second All-Star nod last season and has two years left on his current contract.

5 Will Barton

• Height/weight: 6-6/185

• College: University of Memphis, 40th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft.

• Of note: Scored 22 points, had 13 rebounds and six assists in an April 7th game against the Mavericks becoming the first rookie since Grant Hill in 1995 to have such a stat line.

88 Nicolas Batum

• Height/weight: 6-8/220

• Pre-NBA: MSB Le Mans (French Pro-A League), drafted 25th overall in 2008 draft by the Rockets but traded to Portland on draft day for rights to Darell Arthur and Joey Dorsey

• Of note: Scored 17 points to lead the French national team to a win in the Gold Medal game of EuroBasket, winning the title for the first time in the nation’s history.

18 Victor Claver

• Height/weight: 6-10/235

• Pre-NBA: Valencia (Spanish ACB League), 22nd pick in 2009 NBA draft

• Of note: Averaged 20 minutes, 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds for the Spanish National Team during EuroBasket and scored 16 points in the Bronze Medal game against Croatia.

23 Allen Crabbe

• Height/weight: 6-6/197

• College: California, 31st pick in 2013 NBA draft by the Cavaliers but traded to Portland for second round picks in the 2015 and 2016 draft.

• Of note: Voted as the 2012-13 Pac-12 Player of The Year his junior season at Cal.

18 Joel Freeland

• Height/weight: 6-11/248

• Pre-NBA: Unicaja Malaga (Spanish ACB league), 30th pick in 2006 NBA draft

• Of note: Enters the season as the team’s back-up center behind Robin Lopez.11 Meyers Leonard

• Height/weight: 7-1/255

• College: Illinois, 11th pick in the 2012 NBA draft

• Of note: Enters the season third on the depth chart at center after averaging 17.5 minutes per game last season which included a best game of 22 points and 10 rebounds against the Warriors on March 30th.

0 Damian Lillard

• Height/weight: 6-3/195

• College: Weber State, 6th pick in the 2012 NBA draft

• Of note: Won the 2012-13 NBA Rookie of The Year award and trained with Team USA over the summer in Las Vegas.

42 Robin Lopez

• Height/weight: 7-0/265

• College: Stanford, 15th pick in the 2008 NBA draft by the Phoenix Suns

• Of note: Acquired on July 10th via trade from the New Orleans Pelicans, Lopez was brought in to be the team’s starting center and rim protector they lacked last season.

2 Wesley Matthews

• Height/weight: 6-5/214

• College: Marquette, signed with Utah Jazz in September of 2009 after being undrafted

• Of note: Made a career high 169 3-pointers last season and led the team in accuracy from distance shooting 39.8 percent.

3 C.J. McCollum

• Height/weight: 6-3/197

• College: Lehigh, 10th overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft

• Of note: Averaged 21.3 points per game during his four college seasons but starts the season on the inactive list with a broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot.

41 Thomas Robinson

• Height/weight: 6-10/240

• College: Kansas, 5th pick in the 2012 NBA draft

• Of note: A consensus first-team All-American as a junior at Kansas, Robinson, now on this third team in two seasons, comes to Portland to back-up LaMarcus Aldridge at power forward.

17 Earl Watson

• Height/weight: 6-1/200

• College: UCLA, 40th pick in the 2001 NBA draft

• Of note: Entering his 13th season, Watson will start the season as Portland’s third point guard while McCollum is on the mend.

25 Mo Williams

• Height/weight: 6-1/195

• College: Alabama, 47th pick in the 2003 NBA draft

• Of note: Williams comes to Portland to be a bench scorer and back-up Damian Lillard. He averaged 12.9 points per game in 46 games last year for the Utah Jazz, all of which he started.

1 Dorell Wright

• Height/weight: 6-9/205

• Pre-NBA: South Kent Prep (South Kent, Connecticut)

• Of note: Wright led the league in three-pointers in the 2010-11 NBA season with the Golden State Warriors and feels comfortable guarding the 2-4 positions defensively.