I mean, does that make us fortunate to witness Moe Harkless, because remember Darius Miles and Martell Webster? And no, I'm not saying Lillard is nothing special (like Harkless) but he's not a generational superstar of the sort that makes the fanbase "spoiled" despite lack of team success, IMO. Just because the team has had some shitty point guards in the past doesn't mean that we should weep with joy for having a good one. The team has had an okay five years. Not a great five years, not the kind we should all feel lucky to have been part of. In my opinion, at least.
If you are comparing Dame to Nolan Smith, he might as well be a generational superstar. Also, Dame has accomplished things that few point guards have. I think the only reason why he doesn't get his props is because there are so many other amazing point guards right now.
Well, yeah, that's certainly part of it. Rik Smits didn't get a ton of props despite being very good, because there were inner circle Hall of Fame centers overshadowing him. It's awesome that Portland has him, but is he a better franchise player than most teams have? I'm not sure. Like, if you have Michael Jordan, then you could say that even if you're not winning titles, your team has a player the rest of the league would die for. But would say, Chicago, die to have Lillard instead of Butler? Or the Jazz and Gobert? I'm not sure. Sacramento, though--we have it all over them!
That's comparing apples to oranges though....... would Cleveland rather have Dame than Kyrie? I think so. Would Toronto rather have Dame than Lowry? I think so. Would Washington rather have him over Wall? I'm not sure....... but I think it would be tempting. And yes, I think Chicago would trade Butler for Lillard.
I think the only one of those where the other team would make the swap is Toronto. There's no way Washington or Chicago would--Wall and Butler have defensive value in addition to being excellent offensively. Irving and Lillard are basically the same player, so neither franchise would make that trade--why give up "your guy" for no on-court gain? But my point was not to precisely rank Lillard. My point was that "having a franchise player like Lillard" is not as rare as you're implying, where Portland fans should be thankful every day. Outside of absolutely abysmal franchises like Sacramento, most teams have "a Lillard" (i.e. a star player who's not an era-defining superstar).
Final number: we were outscored by 84 points in the 151 minutes Dame was on the court. Not saying he doesn't play hard or care, but something ain't right.
Jesus Christ - just noticed the assist numbers: Damian had the same number of turnovers as assists. 4.1 of each PER 48 But CJ only had 1.4 assist PER 48 (and 5.1 turnovers!)
I think that's mostly a function of two things: that he played a disproportionate amount of his minutes against the Warriors' A-team and that the Blazers aren't well set up to ping the ball around and the Warriors' defense feasts on static offenses--and Lillard was the battering ram of that offense.
It's hard to get assists when nobody is hitting shots. The rest of our team was just abysmal in this series. Absolutely shameful.
Dame was handing out assists left and right last night - which his teammates happily squandered. As for other teams not wanting our franchise player, I'd disagree completely. My Utah native coworker would kill for Lillard. Jazz fans are convinced that Gordon is leaving for Boston this offseason.
Playing against a superior team certainly doesn't help but that is a MASSIVE gap. Teammates squandered some assists but when you have 2 ball dominant guards that dribble the life out of a ball, that doesn't come as much of a surprise against a good defensive team.
If Chicago would trade Butler for Lillard, it'd be hard to argue against making the deal on our side. I'd want Butler to assure us he wants to be in Portland and willing to stay for the long term.
Yeah, the hard thing about considering trading Dame is all that he means to Portland and the franchise.
Plus he will take the Bulls to the finals just so he can drop 82 points on us in Game 7 of the championship series and tear out our hearts. I don't want to betray Dame, period.
I wouldn't trade Dame but would consider trading CJ for someone of PG or Butler's caliber. They are a bit older but bring so much more balance to the roster and that doesn't even address the improvement in defense.
