He's a top 10 player. Most label him top 20. He's not as underrated as Conley was a couple years ago, but he definitely is a little bit.
2 time All Star 2016 2nd Team All NBA Until Mike Conley signed his contract, Lillard had the richest contract in NBA history. Seems like he's well rated to me.
In my mind most underrated of all time has got to go to somebody like Steve Kerr (not necessarily him specifically) who won championships in the shadow of a Superstar. It's weird to me to call a franchise player one of the most underrated...Especially so young in their career.
How is he not underrated? barely anybody mentions him when they talk about Top pg's in the league. They didn't think he could lead this team. No all star vote. Not even last year, only made it because of injury. People wanna talk chris paul and kyrie up but to me lillard is 3rd best PG in the league. I don't wanna hear about percentages, he shoots the shots he has to, to get the W. Still was 45 percent in 2 point fg percentage. 37 percent in threes. Could easily be higher. As we saw he figured out his shots this year more and gathered up 7 assists. For whatever reason though, nobody really talks that much about him. I see recognition here and there but not on the Kyrie level. Kyrie to me is a great guard but his really great finals performance made people think he was the greatest. Dudes always been overrated
There's always somebody balling and not getting the coverage they deserve. Doesn't make dame the most overrated of all time this early in his career.
You look at the list of guys who simply put up 25ppg over a season, and you generally see a long list of perennial All-Stars. Between 3 and 6 guys usually pull it off, and if you do it more than once you pretty well cement your All-Star selection. There's Cousins, Granger, Monta Ellis in there once a piece, and that's where I guess Damien is widely considered--a fringe star who maybe could break through but probably won't. A guy famous for a couple of clutch shots, but more of a novelty act who doesn't deserve All Star votes like, say, Andre Iguadala. lol. I only see him improving, personally. Like the guy in that video says, there are precious few guys who average 25ppg/6.5 assist by his age. I'd add, though, that the few that have done it didn't cap out at 25/6.5. If you can reach that kind of status at that age, you still seem to have upside. This video was long and meandering and isn't really worth 15 minutes of your life, but he does make a few solid points. Lillard really is overlooked when you consider his statistical achievements and his ability to pull the 4th youngest team in the league, a team gutted of vets the prior summer, to the 5th seed and all the way into the second round.
I'd add that with the addition of Evan Turner we could see Dame go for the scoring title this coming year. Last year the SF position was just another mouth to feed for our PG, meaning it was a stand-still guy in Hark or Crabbe. These were young guys looking for new contracts who were only going to be happy in the offense if they got some shots set up for them (because they can't really create for themselves). This year the SF position goes from hungry mouth to feed to breadwinner. Turner shows up and sets the table for others instead of waiting for the handout. Dame is going to have less reason than ever to worry about setting teammates up and ensuring chemistry is working. I expect Dame to constantly move off the ball looking for Turner to deliver it to him. Turner just doesn't fit our team if he isn't constantly used in the offense, which means it's going to be Turner's responsibility to worry about keeping teammates involved and running the show. Dame's job is to shoot shoot and shoot some more. He's basically going to play the same roll CJ did last year whenever Turner's in the game. This last year we went from having an enormous mouth to feed at the 4 (Aldridge) to a much less hungry mouth at the 3 (Crabbe/Hark). With the added freedom he went from 21ppg to 25ppg. With even more freedom now, I see him getting in that 27-29ppg range, which would put him right there in contention for scoring title.
As much as I agree with everything in this post, Russell Westbrook will not allow anyone else within 2 ppg of him this year. If Dame even gets within spitting distance of the scoring title, Russ will go full WestChuck to ensure his status.
When Damian improves into an above avg defender, he'll be compared to Chris Paul, etc....until then, he's a franchise player who's broken quite a few records and improves every year. He's a star and he's built a brand. Doesn't matter what the guys who predicted we'd win 23 wins last season think.....(HCP)
Yeah i see westbrick going full kobe and dropping in 15/63 shooting and everyone praising him for 40 points when his percentages are attrocious.
