Damian Lillard is 15th best PG

[Wizard Mentor]

Sean Deveney:
No. 1: Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
No. 2: Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs
No. 3: Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
No. 4: Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
No. 5: Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
No. 6: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers
No. 7: Deron Williams, Brooklyn Nets
No. 8: Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics
No. 9: John Wall, Washington Wizards
No. 10: Mike Conley, Memphis Grizzlies
No. 11: Jeff Teague, Atlanta Hawks
No. 12: Ty Lawson, Denver Nuggets
No. 13: Jrue Holiday, New Orleans Pelicans
No. 14: Jose Calderon, Dallas Mavericks
No. 15: Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers

Numbers: 19.0 points, 6.5 assists, 3.1 rebounds.

Lillard is a blur with the ball, and that is his best weapon. The Blazers clearly were not afraid to throw him into the fire last year—he led the league in total minutes—and considering he is 23, older than the likes of Irving and Wall, that was probably a good idea.

In order to make the transition to quality point guard, he will need to be a better playmaker, but he has the scoring instincts to ascend this list.

http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/index.ssf/2013/09/sporting_news_top_nba_point_gu.html

 

[THE HCP]

Sean Deveney:
No. 1: Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
No. 2: Tony Parker, San Antonio Spurs
No. 3: Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
No. 4: Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
No. 5: Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
No. 6: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers
No. 7: Deron Williams, Brooklyn Nets
No. 8: Rajon Rondo, Boston Celtics
No. 9: John Wall, Washington Wizards
No. 10: Mike Conley, Memphis Grizzlies
No. 11: Jeff Teague, Atlanta Hawks
No. 12: Ty Lawson, Denver Nuggets
No. 13: Jrue Holiday, New Orleans Pelicans
No. 14: Jose Calderon, Dallas Mavericks
No. 15: Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers


http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/index.ssf/2013/09/sporting_news_top_nba_point_gu.html

Who is this writer? He says ....."in order for Dame to make the transition to a quality PG"........I would already consider him one.

 

[THE HCP]

I would probably put him at #10 actually.

 

[santeesioux]

Calderon, Teague, Conley, wut?

 

[HomerLovesKoolAid]

Weird list. I'd love to see where Lillard ranks on a coaches poll, especially if the question is: Who do you want for a point guard for the next 5 years?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Probably about right

 

[JDC]

11th is the highest I'd put him at this point. Conley's defensive prowess puts him ahead of Lillard for me.

 

[mook]

You aren't helping your team if you aren't on the court. Derrick Rose was a massively inferior PG last year to Lillard, as he was to every single PG in the league who actually got live game action.

Otherwise you might as well say Magic Johnson is the best PG in the league. After all, when completely healthy nobody is better.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

License to Lillard 2013 Teaser

 

[blazedanugz]

15th?? this is just a case of a writer who probably lives on the east coast and hasn't seen dame play much. if jose calderon(among others that are ahead of him) is a better PG than lillard eve just this year we are extremely fucked

 

[Mediocre Man]

15th?? this is just a case of a writer who probably lives on the east coast and hasn't seen dame play much. if jose calderon(among others that are ahead of him) is a better PG than lillard eve just this year we are extremely fucked

speaking of bias, where would you put him?

 

[VanillaGorilla]

speaking of bias, where would you put him?

Above Jose fucking Calerdon that's for sure. Do you think Calderon is better?

 

[VanillaGorilla]

I would probably put him at #10 actually.

I agree with this.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Above Jose fucking Calerdon that's for sure. Do you think Calderon is better?

No, but I said 15 was about right, so 13 to 17

 

[Wizard Mentor]

How they rank is not the same as their trade potential, but a simple test is...
Would I trade Lillard for x.

For me the answer for over half of those on the list, including John Wall, is NO.

 

[HomerLovesKoolAid]

How they rank is not the same as their trade potential, but a simple test is...
Would I trade Lillard for x.

For me the answer for over half of those on the list, including John Wall, is NO.

Bingo.

 

[HailBlazers]

Yea. It all depends on the criteria. At this stage it might be a fair ranking, but the sample size is too small.

 

[Draco]

If Damian, who is clearly our second best player is worse than half the starting PG’s in the league we should trade away LaMarcus and tank next season.

I don’t think this will be the case but we will get an idea early on next season. Management can make a quick trade on the fly if need be. This looks like a list of past accomplishments not a list of projected future performance. A lot of these guys have major injury concerns, CP3 has a worn knee like Brandon Roy, Curry has chronic ankle injuries, Rose and Rondo are coming off major ACL reconstruction. John Wall missed a number of games.

We don’t know who’ll he healthy but I’d say chances are three of these guys probably have major injuries come up and two of them have regressions in their game we don’t expect. So if Lillard makes the average improvements of a 23 year old player and doesn’t get hurt he should easily be in the top10. If he makes a improvements significantly better than your average sophomore player he could be up towards the top.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

This is more an acknowledgement of the absurd quality of PGs in the league. But I agree with MM - it's about right. Calderon is an odd choice, but then again, he's unbelievably efficient. Actually 11-15 on that list are all about on a par, but I would hope Lillard will prove to be the best of that bunch this season. And I hope the writer gets a shitload of cock picks for not including Ricky Rubio.

 

[blazedanugz]

speaking of bias, where would you put him?

either 9th or 10th. in front of everyone 11-14th. there really isn't much reason to not put him in a class with john wall. in my "bias" opinion, lillard has already had a more successful career than john wall has.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

You seem to have the same "bias" as the Olympic coaches and I.

either 9th or 10th. in front of everyone 11-14th. there really isn't much reason to not put him in a class with john wall. in my "bias" opinion, lillard has already had a more successful career than john wall has.

 

[BigGameDamian]

And Mathews is a top ten SG?

 

[blazedanugz]

You seem to have the same "bias" as the Olympic coaches and I.

psh what do they know

 

[Natebishop3]

Probably about right

lol?

9th or 10th. At this point I would take him over Wall, but they're both quality young point guards.

 

[Natebishop3]

Right now Lillard is about 15th in terms of PER and a few other advanced stats, but in terms of overall production he's right there with Wall.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Rubio?

I thought he was a Kidd/Nash hybrid?

 

[KingSpeed]

Lillard is better than Curry. Switch them last year and the Warriors do at least as well. Curry's Blazers don't win 30 games.

Rubio?

I thought he was a Kidd/Nash hybrid?

No no no. He's in the mold of Rondo, lol.

 

[KingSpeed]

Also- either list Rose at #1 (where he was when got hurt) or don't list him at all.

 

[handiman]

Lillard is better than Curry. Switch them last year and the Warriors do at least as well. Curry's Blazers don't win 30 games.

Also- either list Rose at #1 (where he was when got hurt) or don't list him at all.

I usually don't agree with KS, but he's got 2 damn good points there. Well, #1 is at least debatable.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

These kind of rankings are always subjective. It would be better to do a ton of different rankings - by passing skill, shooting, win shares, defense and let people weight what they thought was more important to come up with some kind of overall ranking (or not). I think of Rose as more like Allen Iverson - a dynamic scorer, but not really that great at running a team. The same is true of Curry and Lillard, to a certain extent. Paul's the best combination of scorer and team-runner in the league, but he's getting up there and is a sieve on defense, despite getting votes for all-defense because of his steals.