Since the Portland Trail Blazers were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by a depleted Denver Nuggets team, there has been speculation about the future of Damian Lillard.

Lillard enters the season, however, with "faith" that the Blazers are going in the right direction.

"I think over the years we've always had a competitive team, I think we'll be competitive again," Lillard said Monday at the team's media day. "Obviously, at the end of last season I wanted to see our roster improve. I wanted us to have a better chance to win. And we had our conversations throughout the summer about what that looked like, and how we could take steps in that direction. I come into this season with faith that that's going to happen."

While the Blazers 

"We've established so much as a team and as an organization, we don't want to just go do something to just to say, 'I made a change,'" Lillard said. "You want it to be in line with something that could actually make us better, something that could send us to the level that we're trying to get to. We've done some things that I like. I didn't expect us to go out there and get Kevin Durant of the sudden."