Sobering statistical comparisons for Lillard

The guys who've been doing massive comparisons for various Blazers on BlazersEdge have turned to Lillard. Most damning quote:

Damning because obviously that "is" should not be there.

I'm not so worried by the measurement stuff. Look at how anemic Russell Westbrook's vertical and Derek Rose's agility measurements were.

BUT: the assist stuff was worrying. I'm reminded of why I didn't want Lillard before the draft (and before he melted my heart in Summer League): he's not really a PG. I made the Rodney Stuckey comparison before the draft (it was pretty obvious because of the small school background and tweener nature) and it looks like it holds up. So I really wish we had an actual PG on the roster...

 

Lillard shot in college because he had to. He was a very good passer in summer league, and ran the offense really well. Tom Penn pointed out his great ability in the pick and roll as well.

 

I think predicting stardom for him is way premature the way some have around here, but I do believe he'll at least be a "good" point guard at this level, maybe somewhere around a Jrue Holliday in terms of his ability to affect a game.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

 

Andre Miller was never the most athletic player either. But he was a pretty damn good PG (just no Jumper). Lillard has a 39.5 inch Vert and has shown that he can throw it down on guys that are 6'10'+. Combine numbers don't tell the whole story.

 

It's really too bad we don't have Andre Miller around to mentor Lillard and back-up PG.

As far as the "sobering stats," not enough weight there to sober me up. Lillard's it factor can't be measured by physical statistics.

 

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/featur...-as-nba-camps-open/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt1

 

Ha, ha. Pretty hard to "exceed" those expectations. How about, if he does those things, he will meet the "franchise player" expectations being heaped on him. I'd gladly "settle" for that.

 

Watching Lillard play in SL it was obvious that he is very much a PG. Saying otherwise is silly at this point.

 

...precisely! Lillard also proved that he knows how and, more importantly, when to make the right play...whether that be pass, drive, or shoot.

 

Even then there are times when he may not make the right play. In that instance I would say that we need to cut the rookie some slack and let him learn from his mistakes.

 

Is this real life?

 

I didn't read through the whole article, so excuse me if it is explained in better detail.
Lillard: 34.5 no step, 39.5 max, 11.15 agility, 3.34 3/4 court
Rose: 34.5 no step, 40.0 max, 11.69 agility, 3.05 3/4 court
Najera: 28.0 no step, 35.0 max,11.38 agility, 3.45 3/4 court
Madsen: 30.5 no step, 33.5 max, 12.12 agility, 3.46 3/4 court
Noah: 32.5 no step, 37.5 max, 11.79 agility, 3.47 3/4 court

I'm not going to bother to go on with Leunen, babitt, and Blair, but what it seems to me is, they ignored vertical and agility, and ONLY looked at the 3/4 court sprint to say that he is more athletically similar to those guys than Rose. Makes me not want to read any further. Could be bad of me to do, someone correct me if they added something to that to justify the otherwise in my eyes poor comparison.

 

This quote is damning only to those naive enough to believe it. The article writers should stick to comparing PGs to PGs.

 

He is going up against some of the best PGs in the game in the first 2 weeks of the season. How long until some of you guys start cracking at him for being a bust?

 

^No doubt!

 

adding from the side of his mouth, "We use the Best Player Available method."

 

One thing I think lilard will give us that we've been missing is a killers instinct. He'll put teams away at the end of games.