Lillard Q & A [SLAM Online]

[Haakzilla]

...I love this kid!

SLAM: When you watch game film, is there anything specific you see that you want to improve on this summer?

DL: Probably one of the main things is just different floaters and little jump-hook shots in the paint instead of challenging the bigs every time, because I got beat up a little bit over the course of the season just from attacking the rim so much. There were a lot of times when I could’ve just stopped short of the rim and just shot a floater over the top of them. Coming across the paint, shooting more jump-hooks, I could’ve took a lot of that pounding off of my body had I had those shots last season.

SLAM: Is there anyone specific who you want to steal moves from?

DL: In the League right now, I think Derrick Rose. He’s an explosive athlete and he attacks the rim, and I like to attack the rim, but he has that floater in his game. I think I need to develop it. Baron Davis is another guy who I loved to watch play growing up, and I’ve been talking to him about different ways to be more crafty with the ball. Hopefully I’ll be better next season.

SLAM: Have you gotten in the gym with Baron, or just spoken with him?

DL: It’s just been conversations, but we’re gonna get together soon.

SLAM: I heard you were planning to train with Gary Payton.

DL: That’s the plan. I know he just got a new job, so it’ll be tough on him with time, but hopefully we’ll get it done.

SLAM: You had an interesting tweet about young players placing too much value on getting buckets. What inspired that?

DL: There’s a lot of younger guys from Oakland, from my area, guys that are in college that I follow on Twitter, and they’re always talking about getting buckets. I kinda got a little bit irritated, because there are some guys—their team needs them to get buckets, but everybody can’t get buckets. So I was just like, How are you valuable if your team doesn’t need you to get buckets? What are you gonna do?

SLAM: Is that something you picked up during your rookie year?

DL: I mean, I realized that in college. But I’ve always kind of been in a role when my team needed me to get buckets. But at the same time, I know that if I ended up on a team where they didn’t need me to, I’d still be a valuable player. So that’s something that I wanted to put out there.

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[SlyPokerDog]

Great interview! Thanks for posting it.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

Ryan McNeill of BulletinBoardMaterial.com interviewed Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard about his offseason and the upcoming 2013-14 season. The audio is right here.

Here's a partial transcript.

How can you improve next season?

The best thing I know to do is keep working. That's what I've been doing this summer. I've made some improvements on some skill stuff, I've gotten stronger, I've watched film on myself when I was successful and when I struggled. I think I'll be judged -- the level of player I'll be, people will base that on how my team does from now on. My main goal is to try to help my team get further and have a better record than we did last year.


How much will the new bench help?

I think it will help us a lot. We added some really good players. Guys that fit into the team we had already. It won't be as much pressure on our starting five to perform, play a bunch of minutes and still have to produce at a high level. We'll have guys that can come in and produce and make sure we get the amount of rest that we need to be at the top of our game.


How can you keep pace in the Western Conference?

It's always tough in the West. This year, a lot of the teams in the West have gotten better but we're one of them. It's all on paper. At the end of the day, every team that has gotten better on paper and put good guys on their roster, they have to put it together on the floor. It's a matter of who can put it together on the floor the best.


What do you guys need to do to "put it together" next season?

First of all, guys need to show up and be ready. When guys are working in the offseason and show up in shape and everybody is ready, we all can figure out what we want to get done. Everybody has to be bought into what we want to get done. Guys have to understand what their role is, what the teams need from them, and embrace it. I think the best teams have guys that embrace what the team needs from them, sacrifice themselves for the best of the team. Once we can get that, guys can figure what the team needs from them, I think we should be a really good team, a playoff team.
Sean Highkin of USA Today Sports also got a few quotes from Lillard about his workload and the Blazers' offseason additions.

"Sometimes when you're out there (playing) so many minutes, your body can wear down," Lillard told USA TODAY Sports. "So you're not always productive at the highest levels because you might be worn down."

...

Lillard is happy with the extra help he's getting.

"It was definitely what we needed," he said. "We needed size and we got that. We needed more depth, and we definitely got that.

 

[VanillaGorilla]

GET BUCKETS

 

[PapaG]

Shabazz Muhammad said he’s wearing No. 0 this year because no one else does—but you and a bunch of other guys wear 0.

I kind of hope Muhammad sticks around the league for awhile, because he has Artest/Rodman/Arenas potential in terms of being an absolute headcase sideshow.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Ryan McNeill of BulletinBoardMaterial.com interviewed Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard about his offseason and the upcoming 2013-14 season. The audio is right here.

Here's a partial transcript.

Thanks for posting that!

 

[dviss1]

Great posts guys. In these dog days it's good to get a little info on the team (save reports about Batum's ankle).

 

[jlprk]

Great interview! Thanks for posting it.

Thanks for posting that!

You are overpaid.

 

[PapaG]

Thanks for posting that!

YAY!!! Double thanks for posting that geewhizgollygee!

[video=youtube;iBktYJsJq-E]

 

[SlyPokerDog]

You are overpaid.

YAY!!! Double thanks for posting that geewhizgollygee!

Two different interviews. I liked reading both of them.

 

[jlprk]

Sitting down on the job, eh?