I kind of look at it like Chris Paul. Dame has only been in the league 6 years. Paul is in his 13th year and is only now on a favorite contending team. Even that is no guarantee he will get to the Finals. Paul had to change teams a couple times to get to where he is. Nobody anywhere is questioning how good Chris Paul is at this point in his career. I doubt anyone with any real knowledge doubts Lillard is a great PG. The whole narrative that only playoff success can determine a great player has been debunked over and over again with player after player. Great players get their teams into the playoffs. You have to be in the playoffs to win in the playoffs. Getting into the playoffs without injury and or with rest at the end of the season seems to be a key to winning in the playoffs. So saying a team can win in the regular season but not in the playoffs also is fundamentally wrong also. The Warriors this year had a number of injuries with a month or so left in the season. Their regular season record allowed them to get everyone healthy and rested going into the playoffs. Then their seeding allowed them to pull a first round opponent that they could beat without Steph Curry on the court. Right now he is listed as questionable for their opener against the Pels. He better be available because my thinking is the Pelicans are better than most thought. Point is Finding a combination of players, building a contender takes time. Dame will eventually be part of a great team either here or somewhere else. I know he has said he is happy here and does not want to leave but 10 years in this league is an absolute eternity. Heck 8 years and a third contract is almost unheard of. Only the very best and special players actually stay in one place their entire career. Trying to make a judgement on Damian Lillard at this point in his career is like saying a series is over at halftime of a closeout game. Now if you get to his 15th year in the league and he never wins a championship then you can add him to a long list of great players that never won a championship. But even then he will still most likely hold pretty much every record the Blazer franchise has. That again is assuming he stays with this team.
Yep, he disappeared in a crowd of three defenders. If he was any good at all he would have shook those three off like they were ants and scored every time he got the ball on offense. Brilliant logic there.
