His leadership, scoring, and passing ability? The dude can do everything offensively. And his "poor defense" is magnified by the team. Remember his 2nd year when his DBPM was about even? When he had that top 10 defense around him? Yeah, your "basis" for this whole thread is flawed.
No one has turned on anyone, at least I havent. but I do think we need to adjust how we see this team. we are capped out and all we have are two fringe all stars and a couple nice role players. that isnt going to buy you much in a superstar driven league.
Dame is downright amazing. There's no reason to hate on the guy. His reputation for weak defense is likely holding him back from getting awards, tho. He's got ice in his veins in the clutch. He can put up lots of points in a hurry. He's 7th in scoring, 3rd among point guards. He's 15th in the league in assists, though I wouldn't want many of those ahead of him instead (Rubio, Rondo, etc.). He's 9th in FTA, which indicates he's getting superstar calls. He's playing 35.8 MPG. If he played just a few more minutes, he might lead the league in scoring. He's gotten better each season. A tribute to his work ethic. He's been the opposite of a Jail Blazer. He's the team leader. This is his team.
I think he's a very good teammate. But don't leaders lead their teams to better records than this? Aren't those both quantifiable? Y'know, with stats? Like the ones being compared with other PGs? Oh, now you're convincing me. Things like "finish at the rim" you mean? For which there's a stat. I will agree that defense is very hard to quantify with a stat. The best of an imperfect lot is some kind of plus/minus. But you can also watch him play. And it's not pretty. So NOW the "advance stats" aren't so bogus? Maybe his defensive numbers were inflated then? Whereas YOUR basis is "LEAVE DAMIAN ALONE!!!!!!"
You're suggesting he might not be top 10. Someone suggested is possible he's just an average starter. A few have brought up the idea of trading him. He's not a fringe all star. He's a superstar. 27/6/4 on 45/35/90 is not a "fringe all star" McCollum is a little above fringe all star level at this point (even though he won't make the all star team. 23ppg on 47/43/90 is elite level scoring. He's almost a 50/40/90 guy at 23ppg. That's all-star level.
These debates always get silly at a certain point. Stats are all well and good, but the stats that an individual point guard puts up aren't done in a vacuum; they're done in the context of the team he's playing on. Dame's 3 pt percentage is down. OMG! Do you think that's because he's really a poor shooter or is it because he's had to push to try to make things happen when the team has fallen behind because the rest of his teammates aren't hitting their shots? Put him in a situation where the offense is more balanced and he has the luxury of taking only open 3 pointers on catch and shoot situations and I'll guarantee you his percentage goes up. And, as the original poster said, this is kind of a golden era of point guards. Is Dame somehow worse because there are other good guys playing his position? Anybody want to bring back Sebastian Telfair to run the offense? I hear he's available. Dame is the best player this franchise has had since at least Brandon Roy. We are damned lucky to have him.
Again with the bogus stats! So I guess all of the PGs in the list this thread started with are Superstars?
Man, if there was ever a night for him to drop 50 in our biggest win of the season, and set things straight again... tomorrow on ESPN would be it.
