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#4 Damian Lillard, Blazers
Portland was supposed to take a leap backward last year after coughing up four-fifths of its starting five in the summer of 2015. Instead, Lillard — the one-fifth they did keep — firmed up his own stardom by averaging 25.1 points, 6.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds, leading the Blazers not only to 44 wins and an unlikely playoff appearance, but into the second round of the postseason.
Lillard’s game is not that complicated. He is a volume scorer, and he is very good at that, having developed a reliable 3-point shot (37.0 percent for his career) and free-throw stroke (career 87.0 percent), while maintaining his fearlessness attacking off the pick-and-roll and getting to the rim.
He had a Usage Rate (percentage of his team’s plays in which he was involved) of 31.3, which was eighth in the league last year, and at age 25, was the second-youngest player in the Top 10 in that category, behind DeMarcus Cousins. In other words, Lillard was a dominant offensive force last year and a very young age.
Defense, of course, is another story with Lillard, and for the Blazers to continue to improve as a team, they’ll need a better effort from him on that side of the ball while maintaining some size and length in the frontcourt.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/lis...hris-paul/1kjbtsmvjx1341wus19kkuexuo/slide/13
Portland was supposed to take a leap backward last year after coughing up four-fifths of its starting five in the summer of 2015. Instead, Lillard — the one-fifth they did keep — firmed up his own stardom by averaging 25.1 points, 6.8 assists and 4.0 rebounds, leading the Blazers not only to 44 wins and an unlikely playoff appearance, but into the second round of the postseason.
Lillard’s game is not that complicated. He is a volume scorer, and he is very good at that, having developed a reliable 3-point shot (37.0 percent for his career) and free-throw stroke (career 87.0 percent), while maintaining his fearlessness attacking off the pick-and-roll and getting to the rim.
He had a Usage Rate (percentage of his team’s plays in which he was involved) of 31.3, which was eighth in the league last year, and at age 25, was the second-youngest player in the Top 10 in that category, behind DeMarcus Cousins. In other words, Lillard was a dominant offensive force last year and a very young age.
Defense, of course, is another story with Lillard, and for the Blazers to continue to improve as a team, they’ll need a better effort from him on that side of the ball while maintaining some size and length in the frontcourt.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nba/lis...hris-paul/1kjbtsmvjx1341wus19kkuexuo/slide/13
