We've been tortured in the past with misfortune, so it feels good that we... traded a disgruntled but aging player for pick #6 Identified DL early and passed on HFB (Barnes).
Patrick--"Lillard was the most NBA ready player in this past draft, and it showed last night as he had his way with the Lakers".
Lillard's opening night EFF = 22. Of course, it would have been even higher if not for the below average shooting and 6 turnovers, but that's still a pretty damn good start. It's only been 1 game, but here's the 2012-13 top 10 rookies by EFF: 1 Anthony Davis, NOH 24.0 2 Damian Lillard, POR 22.0 3 Jonas Valanciunas, TOR 14.0 4 Bernard James, DAL 11.0 4 Kyle Singler, DET 11.0 6 Dion Waiters, CLE 10.0 7 Kim English, DET 9.0 7 Festus Ezeli, GSW 9.0 9 Harrison Barnes, GSW 7.0 9 Bradley Beal, WAS 7.0 9 Meyers Leonard, POR 7.0 Most have predicted a two man race for ROY between Lillard and Davis, and the two favorites are already separating themselves from the rest of the pack. BNM
I think (and I hope I'm wrong) Lillard is not going to have as money "even" games like that. Meaning I think most nights it will be either 25 pt 5 ast or 12 pts 10asts. He probably wont be able to consistently do the 20/10 games this year but I can easily see him being able to do that in the future. And as other posters have mentioned I think he has a lot of room to learn and grow, which is scary to think about. He isnt raw by any means but learning the little things here and there he will be able to take that skill and add to it the crafty veteran type things down the road as well get better simply by chemistry and time. I think I counted at least 3 or 4 other pin point passes that his teammates werent ready for that would have easily been assists.
yeah, he seemed to have Sergio Syndrome a bit where the pass would be there and (even good players like LMA) would be "wha?? where did that come from?" I can think of his bounce pass to Leonard cutting baseline (which he should've known not to put him in that position), the laser to LMA on the baseline, and the behind the back to a wide-open Hickson that he just bricked. It wasn't that far at all from a 25/15 game, which would've gotten a lot of panties into a twist.
Yeah, there was really no excuse for LMA to miss that pass, but the TOs don't bother me. He's trying things, and that's good to see. I'd rather he try to make passes like that without worrying about turnovers. I really only saw one or two sloppy passes that were rookie mistakes.
I think it's going to be a dogfight between Lillard and Davis this season. The only advantage that Davis might have is that the Hornets rely on him more than we rely on Lil. I suspect Dame will have a few 12 point games with 8 or 9 assists, and we will win those games, but it won't help him in the ROY battle.
Apparently Lillard is in fine company with Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas with 20 points and 10 or more assists in their first game. Roy also had a great first game with 20 points 3 rebounds and 2 assists while shooting .625 from the field while helping the Blazers to victory on the road against our arch rivals Seattle. I'm looking forward to many good things from Lillard in the future.
Bernard James was a DNP coaches decision in the first game and was 1-5 from the field with 8 points and 6 rebounds in 16 minutes. Okay numbers for a rookie but definitely nothing to suggest he be chosen #4. He's also 27 years old. Nice story about him though.
He also had a few buckets that he could have easily had or even should have had. Like the 3 pointer where he stepped out. And a few wide open 3's that he normally hits. Combine that with the assists he should have had on people not prepared for the pass and it not inconceivable that he could have had a 30/15. Then the question that comes to mind is: Knowing how good of a game that he had stat/record wise last night do you even feel like he dominated the game?
