Lillard is the most amazing blazer I've seen in person.

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
mook said:
If Lillard continues at his current 24 pt/7 assist average for the rest of the month, he'll have achieved something Brandon Roy never did in his entire career.

If these numbers are the new "normal" for him (including the gaudy shooting percentages), he has to be in the argument for the best PG in the league. The only guys I can think of who are putting up comparable numbers are Curry and Westbrook.
Click to expand...

I honestly don't know how he's done it, this constant, immediate improvement. I mean, it's obvious he has a metric ton of talent, but he's been scouted to death, and still is managing to pull off some amazing stuff. No rookie wall, and what feels like 3 seasons of improvement in one year. The drive with either hand, on either side of the basket, finishing with either hand? The jumpers from anywhere past half court, fading away, spotting up, driving and stopping. About the only shot he's missing is that floater (but Maynor can teach him that). And then his passing is really good too, and has gotten better even though he's sometimes smothered by double-teams.

He's the entire package (offensively).
 
Last edited:
I'd like to see him get better at the lob pass. But that's a minor quibble.
 
Defense is where he needs to improve obviously. J.R. Smith abused him on that dunk he had in the 1st half.
 
BrianFromWA said:
I'd like to see him get better at the lob pass. But that's a minor quibble.
Click to expand...

To be fair, our team as a whole needs to get better at lob awareness and floor position to catch said lobs, but yeah, he throws a bit high and wide right now. Maynor can teach that too, I think.
 
tlongII said:
Defense is where he needs to improve obviously. J.R. Smith abused him on that dunk he had in the 1st half.
Click to expand...

"The best defense is a good offense" --Mel, the cook on "Alice".

But yeah, he's not superman, or perfect. He's barely passable on defense, but he gets you recovery points.
 
My biggest gripe with Dame this year had been his shot selection and FG%. He's fixed that in a big way. I thought it was what separated him from being in the Kyrie/Steph/Rose/Jrue level vs. the Mo Williams/Jennings/Teague level.

If he ends this season at ~45% FG and high eFG and TS%, then i'd put him in the higher tier easily.
 
BlazerCaravan said:
I honestly don't know how he's done it, this constant, immediate improvement. I mean, it's obvious he has a metric ton of talent, but he's been scouted to death
Click to expand...

I think the scouting report went out the window as soon as we got Maynor. There's no one way to defend Lillard now.
 
yuyuza1 said:
My biggest gripe with Dame this year had been his shot selection and FG%. He's fixed that in a big way. I thought it was what separated him from being in the Kyrie/Steph/Rose/Jrue level vs. the Mo Williams/Jennings/Teague level.

If he ends this season at ~45% FG and high eFG and TS%, then i'd put him in the higher tier easily.
Click to expand...

His March has been pretty much insane; the struggling he used to do later in games (late 2nd, early 3rd quarters) because the defense had clamped down on him is gone, due almost entirely to Maynor, and the way Stotts uses him as a safety valve to prevent defenses from removing our playmaking ability. Lillard's shooting in March:

54.2 FG%, 43.2 3P%, 24.6 PPG, 7.0 APG over 7 games.

That's insane. He has 5 games of 20+ points and 7+ assists in March, tied with James Harden, ahead of Stephen Curry. (http://bkref.com/tiny/Yhe8Q)

The offensive system with Maynor hasn't fully been scouted, but I don't think there's much defenses can do if you have two legit PG-level ball-handlers on the court.
 
Last edited:
yuyuza1 said:
My biggest gripe with Dame this year had been his shot selection and FG%. He's fixed that in a big way. I thought it was what separated him from being in the Kyrie/Steph/Rose/Jrue level vs. the Mo Williams/Jennings/Teague level.

If he ends this season at ~45% FG and high eFG and TS%, then i'd put him in the higher tier easily.
Click to expand...

I agree about the Kyrie/Steph/Rose tier, but I really wouldn't put Jrue up there if we're going with upping efficiency as the benchmark. Holiday has good looking %'s at a glance but the proportion he takes the shots in drops his efficiency greatly. Jrue's shooting a 50.8% TS% on the year, to Damian's 54.8, Kyrie's 56.5, and Steph's 58.4. Being that inefficient while also being his teams highest usage player is a big reason Philly is 27th in the league in O Rating this year.
 
BlazerCaravan said:
His March has been pretty much insane; the struggling he used to do later in games (late 2nd, early 3rd quarters) because the defense had clamped down on him is gone, due almost entirely to Maynor, and the way Stotts uses him as a safety valve to prevent defenses from removing our playmaking ability. Lillard's shooting in March:

54.2 FG%, 43.2 3P%, 24.6 PPG, 7.0 APG over 7 games.

That's insane. He has 5 games of 20+ points and 7+ assists in March, tied with James Harden, ahead of Stephen Curry. (http://bkref.com/tiny/Yhe8Q)

The offensive system with Maynor hasn't fully been scouted, but I don't think there's much defenses can do if you have two legit PG-level ball-handlers on the court.
Click to expand...

I'm starting to wonder if Lillard isn't more of a natural shooting guard, to be honest. If he were two inches taller this would be a much bigger discussion.

It may be that at some point Maynor becomes a starter and you just live with a size mismatch problem because the speed advantage more than makes up for it.

If I were Wes Matthews, I'd plan on fighting for my starting job next fall. He gives you better size and defense, but on a PER basis he's pretty much even with Maynor. And there's some mounting evidence that Maynor seems to make Lillard better.

Regardless of who starts, Wes is getting about 37 mpg this month to Maynor's 20 mpg. Next fall (assuming they're both still here) I think we'll see those numbers equalize to around 28 each. At least at the guard spots. Matthews may pick up some minutes at SF.
 
Jayps15 said:
I agree about the Kyrie/Steph/Rose tier, but I really wouldn't put Jrue up there if we're going with upping efficiency as the benchmark. Holiday has good looking %'s at a glance but the proportion he takes the shots in drops his efficiency greatly. Jrue's shooting a 50.8% TS% on the year, to Damian's 54.8, Kyrie's 56.5, and Steph's 58.4. Being that inefficient while also being his teams highest usage player is a big reason Philly is 27th in the league in O Rating this year.
Click to expand...

Good call, I had not realized that about Jrue, but his advanced #s are pretty mediocre. I think his ridiculous game vs POR kinda clouded my perception.

Here's my top 10 PG list for this season:

1. CP
2. TP
3. Curry
4. Kyrie
5. Westbrook
6. Deron
7. Lawson
8. Jrue
9. Dame
10. Conley

Guys who could potentially be ahead of Dame this season were it not for injuries: Rondo/Rose

Next season, I'm hoping he climbs to the upper half of that list.
 
BlazerCaravan said:
"The best defense is a good offense" --Mel, the cook on "Alice".

But yeah, he's not superman, or perfect. He's barely passable on defense, but he gets you recovery points.
Click to expand...

"The best offense is a good defense" :p
 
Rhal said:
and this is why Hockey is unbearably boring to watch.
Click to expand...

As one of the people with tickets to the sold out Winterhawks game at the Rose Garden tonight, I would respectfully disagree.
 
BlazerCaravan said:
I honestly don't know how he's done it, this constant, immediate improvement. I mean, it's obvious he has a metric ton of talent, but he's been scouted to death, and still is managing to pull off some amazing stuff. No rookie wall, and what feels like 3 seasons of improvement in one year. The drive with either hand, on either side of the basket, finishing with either hand? The jumpers from anywhere past half court, fading away, spotting up, driving and stopping. About the only shot he's missing is that floater (but Maynor can teach him that). And then his passing is really good too, and has gotten better even though he's sometimes smothered by double-teams.

He's the entire package (offensively).
Click to expand...

Ive mentioned this before but if he gets a reliable floater a la Tony Parker or as mentioned Maynor then I really believe he would be unstoppable
 
I know it's a natural impulse to try and make lists and rank people, but frankly the only thing that matters is, "Will his play be able to drive this team through the playoffs?" I don't think we're going to get any sort of answer this year, but we might next year. Until then, this talk about Dame being the most amazing Blazer, blah, blah, blah just doesn't mean much to me.

That said, I definitely enjoy watching him and I think he has great potential and it's nice that we can even put him in the conversation with the league's best point guards with a straight face, but there's not much else to count on until we see how he performs when it really matters in the post-season.
 
So, would you say he's hit the rookie catapult?!?!

BlazerCaravan said:
His March has been pretty much insane; the struggling he used to do later in games (late 2nd, early 3rd quarters) because the defense had clamped down on him is gone, due almost entirely to Maynor, and the way Stotts uses him as a safety valve to prevent defenses from removing our playmaking ability. Lillard's shooting in March:


54.2 FG%, 43.2 3P%, 24.6 PPG, 7.0 APG over 7 games.

That's insane. He has 5 games of 20+ points and 7+ assists in March, tied with James Harden, ahead of Stephen Curry. (http://bkref.com/tiny/Yhe8Q)

The offensive system with Maynor hasn't fully been scouted, but I don't think there's much defenses can do if you have two legit PG-level ball-handlers on the court.
Click to expand...
 
BlazerCaravan said:
His March has been pretty much insane; the struggling he used to do later in games (late 2nd, early 3rd quarters) because the defense had clamped down on him is gone, due almost entirely to Maynor, and the way Stotts uses him as a safety valve to prevent defenses from removing our playmaking ability. Lillard's shooting in March:

54.2 FG%, 43.2 3P%, 24.6 PPG, 7.0 APG over 7 games.

That's insane. He has 5 games of 20+ points and 7+ assists in March, tied with James Harden, ahead of Stephen Curry. (http://bkref.com/tiny/Yhe8Q)

The offensive system with Maynor hasn't fully been scouted, but I don't think there's much defenses can do if you have two legit PG-level ball-handlers on the court.
Click to expand...

We know he's going to get another rookie-of-the-month award, but might he have a shot at a player of the week award as well?
 
I'm starting to wonder if 3rd team all-NBA is a possibility. He would have to maintain his March level of play through the end of the season, of course.
 
handiman said:
I'm starting to wonder if 3rd team all-NBA is a possibility. He would have to maintain his March level of play through the end of the season, of course.
Click to expand...

No chance in hell this year.
 
mook said:
I'm starting to wonder if Lillard isn't more of a natural shooting guard, to be honest. If he were two inches taller this would be a much bigger discussion.

It may be that at some point Maynor becomes a starter and you just live with a size mismatch problem because the speed advantage more than makes up for it.

If I were Wes Matthews, I'd plan on fighting for my starting job next fall. He gives you better size and defense, but on a PER basis he's pretty much even with Maynor. And there's some mounting evidence that Maynor seems to make Lillard better.

Regardless of who starts, Wes is getting about 37 mpg this month to Maynor's 20 mpg. Next fall (assuming they're both still here) I think we'll see those numbers equalize to around 28 each. At least at the guard spots. Matthews may pick up some minutes at SF.
Click to expand...

Maynor would never start with Lillard barring injury reasons. Not only would it be bad strategically, there's no way Maynor is even close to good enough to move Lillard from starting point guard. I also don't see Maynor playing 28 minutes for us. His role is perfect right now, it shouldn't change.
 
VanillaGorilla said:
Maynor would never start with Lillard barring injury reasons. Not only would it be bad strategically, there's no way Maynor is even close to good enough to move Lillard from starting point guard. I also don't see Maynor playing 28 minutes for us. His role is perfect right now, it shouldn't change.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this. There is no reason to start Lillard at sg. Maynor is the back up guard and if, god forbid, an injury to Lillard or maynor happens, one could still play.

Our best bet is to find a starting or bench shooter, able to create their shot and score in bunches.
 
Next year when the refs start finally giving him calls his scoring average will go up 6-8pts per game.
 
Not that it'll happen, but trading Wes to MIL in a Redick S&T while keeping Maynor's cap hold would give us a 3-guard rotation of Lillard/Maynor/Redick and enough to hold on to Hickson's cap hold (whether to keep him or to S&T).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PapaG
The Blazers Player with the Most Trade Value is Lillard
2 3 4
Replies
105
Views
3K
Strenuus
Strenuus
santeesioux
Lillard in the ASG?
2
Replies
40
Views
2K
jlprk
jlprk
santeesioux
This is one of the most solid offseason plans i've seen
Replies
23
Views
1K
rasheedfan2005
rasheedfan2005
SlyPokerDog
Event I saw the most amazing thing ever tonight!
2 3 4
Replies
116
Views
11K
dviss1
dviss1
Blazers Roy
"Damian Lillard is the Third Best Blazer Ever" / Bill Simmons
Replies
26
Views
2K
beast blazer
beast blazer

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top