Ridnour was face guarding him off the ball in the second half. They certainly tried to limit his scoring opportunities.
You ain't kidding. Not that he's not going to be good, but isn't that rather rash extrapolation? Especially given his poor defense:
I don't care who this rook is scoring on........ compare him to Marshall down at PHX and Rivers at NOLA! He straight schooled Lin/Heinrich/and Ridnour in the past week. He will take his lumps like he did against Dragic (and most likely like he will tomorrow against Dwill) but this kid is legit!
Good point..... Don't mean to make any excuses, but he has been sick. Hope he shakes it off starting tomorrow. WOuld love to have him play well on the east coast. He's up in front of me right now playing X-Box and looks just fine!
Yeah, I'm conveniently forgetting all the Marshall-boosting I did pre-draft. You're with me in this, I'm sure.
I think the thing that really pops out at me is Lillard is on a team with 3 other very good scorers and still is averaging 20 ppg. That really is impressive. The other rooks don't have much and aren't even close to the production Lillard is shelling out. Truly special
Yeah, but rookie Porter shared time with experienced guards Paxson, Colter, and Valentine. Lillard has only Price.
Would you rather have Damian Lillard (6' 3", 195 lbs) or Kyrie Irving (6' 3", 191 lbs)? Lillard thru 12 games: 2012 - 20.2 ppg, 0.473 fg%, 0.405 3P%, 6.0 apg, 3.0 rpg, 1.3 spg, 3.3 to Kyrie Irving: 2012 - 22.9 ppg, 0.463 fg%, 0.391 3p%, 5.6 apg, 3.7 rpg, 1.1 spg, 4.1 to 2011 - 18.5 ppg, 0.469 fg%, 0.399 3p%, 5.4 apg, 3.8 rpg, 1.1 spg, 3.1 to 12 games is a relatively small sample size, but I doubt many Blazer fans would trade Damian Lillard (drafted #6) for Kyrie Irving (last years #1 draft pick and rookie of the year).
Having a comparable rookie season to Irving's. Lillard is 2 years older than Irving, which pushes it more in Irving's favor. Although, he does also have an injury history that continues this season. Someone can come in and say all of th einjuries are unrelated. And I agree. But we've seen unrelated injuries add up. Some were saying same about Elliot this year. I want nothing to do with injuries adding up, personally. Just scares me.
Yes, it's only been 12 games, but a few things of note: Irving missed 15 games during last year's strike shortened season. So, the sample size for his rookie year was only 51 games. More than 12, but still only 60% of a normal 82 game season. Irving put of those numbers on a team that went 21-45 (.318 winning percentage). Lillard is putting up his numbers on a .500 team. Also, Lillard is sharing the ball with three other scorers who average 19.7, 19.2 and 17.3ppg. His top 3 teammates average a combined 56.2ppg. By comparison, Irving's top 3 teammates (that played in more than 25 games) averaged 17.2, 10.6 and 10.5ppg - total 38.3ppg. On a crappy team, someone has to score, and Irving benefited by being the best player on a truly crappy team last season. By contrast, the Blazers are a .500 team (through 12 games) and Lilliard is a huge part of his team's success. And while our bench truly sucks, our starters, the guys Lillard plays most of his minutes with, are actually very good. So yes, based on performance to date, and the eye ball test, I'd definitely take Lillard over Irving. And, that's actually very impressive, because Irving is good and was very deserving of winning ROY last season. Getting Lillard at 6 was almost like winning the lottery. Thank you New Jersey Nets! Actually, it was BETTER than winning the lottery, because if New Jersey would have won the lottery, they would have gotten to keep the pick! BNM
