http://blogs.trailblazers.com/Publi...d/99/EntryID/4804/IamaUserID/566/Default.aspx http://www.csnnw.com/blog/blazers-talk/lillard-has-goal-being-mvp Love this guy more and more every day
I do want him to work on his defense, But Steve Nash won 2 MVPs, and Derrick Rose won an MVP recently. Neither are good defenders.
I wouldn't lump Rose in with Steve Nash at all. I get what you are saying but one of those guys is at least average on D. At this point Lillard isn't even average.
I never in a million years would have thought Nash could be an MVP when he was with the Mavs, so anything is possible.
He's got some work to do but I believe the potential is there. For those curious here are the guard DRtg leaders http://bkref.com/tiny/pb55G
I am pretty sure that in DRtg the lower number is better. So why are you sorting it so it only shows those with 100 or above?
He's pretty below average on defense. Not Steve Nash bad, but not really good at all. In a similar way as Lillard, IMO. He'll give you effort, and can make decent defensive plays, but he's just not there mentally on defense. He's improved some. But, as an example, in his MVP season, his DRtg was 103. By itself, that's good. But his team's rating was 100. Lillard's is about where the team's overall rating is.
There's some kid out there who has never once dribbled a basketball who will eventually be an NBA MVP. If he can do it, then maybe so can Lillard.
That is a team oriented stat. Defense is the hardest thing to advanced stat because there are so many intangibles to make a player a good defender. Most of those intangibles don't show up on stat sheets. Example.... If lillard works on forcing his man to the heart of defense and we have a great interior defender, that Drtg goes way up. Even though lillard really didn't alter the shot, he was just as important to that defense because he forced his man to the hardest possible shot. I think lillard just needs to work on that part of his game. Getting a couple steals a game may be good, but I think he really needs to figure out where we are strongest defensively, then guide his man to that part of the court.
If you look at Mike Conley's defensive rating, he started out at 113 his rookie year and steadily progressed to his current 101. He went from being one of the very worst in the league to the 4th best (by that rating). Conley DRTG really shot up when Gasol emerged as one of the best defensive centers in the game. Hopefully Lillard sees similar growth as he learns to defend better and we (hopefully) add some interior defense. I keep reminding myself that a year ago Damian was guarding guys in the Big Sky conference (and probably the easiest assignment, given the scoring load he carried.) Mike Conley at least came from a great college team that made it to the national championship. Nothing in Damian's career has prepared him for guarding Westbrook or Chris Paul.
