Yep. Davis had injury problems and that prevented the Pelicans from getting a good seed year after year. The difference was Davis was healthy vs the Blazers that series. Without Davis and Cousins the Blazers could outscore them. So picking the Blazers to win was picking Davis to miss 4 of the 7 games.
With Davis the teams weren't close that season. The Blazers were woefully outclassed talent wise. Without Davis the Pelicans didn't have enough offense to keep up with Portland and they didn't have enough defense to shut down both Dame and CJ consistently.
Even with Davis the Pelicans didn't have enough offense to keep up with Golden State, who had more All Stars and better defense.
Davis was healthy enough for the Pelicans to make the playoffs twice in his time there, and both times they were easily run out of the playoffs by Golden State (like most other teams Golden State faced during this time). They just got a lucky draw against a team they were more talented than when they dropped to 6 and were gifted Portland at 3.
Portland's only chance in that series was the Pelicans having devastating injury problems. Which wasn't unlikely. But it has very little to do with Dame or coaching. Portland simply didn't have the horses to compete with a healthy Pelicans team that season.
