Of note, the person who said Lillard is a Nets blogger... I wonder if he's bitter about having Wallace instead of the Lillard pick.
I don't think Lillard is overrated around the NBA, but I do think he is overrated by many around here. I love having a reliable point guard, and I can't think of the last time we had someone as good as Lillard at PG on a Blazers team, but a lot of people around here think he is on the same level as Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving. He is not at that level yet, and maybe he won't ever be, but he is at the top of the second tier of point guards, and I'm more than okay with that.
His statement was based on nothing more than PER. Looking at other advanced stats (VA, EWA, +/-...), Lillard comes up more favorably.
Maybe not at the skill set of a Irving, but he was just a rookie. I think we need to look at a few more seasons before we claim he's only a second tier PG. The things Lillard possess is deadly range, control, Bball IQ, work ethic, drive and doesn't have to rely on his athleticism to get a shot off. Something Irving, dwill and Williams relies on.
The thing that's so dumb about this is the notion that PER benefits from a "glut of minutes on a bad team". There are a bunch of guys in the NBA who produce a high PER in a limited number of minutes, but playing at a highly efficient rate when you're logging huge minutes is much tougher. And playing on a bad team is supposed to help? I wonder how Damian's numbers would have looked if his assist totals weren't being reduced by the time spent playing with bench players who consistently bricked wide open shots that he'd set them up for. And how many times did he feel pressured to put up a shot that he might have otherwise passed on if he'd had competent players on the court with him at all times. PER is a decent starting point for looking at a player's relative contributions on the court, but it's only that...a starting point. This guy should have just stuck with his initial notion to punt on the question.
Hard to be overrated when you play for a small market team on the west coast. Most NBA fans on the east coast barely knows who he is. He's rated but hardly overrated.
Looking at the roster today its absolutely crazy to think that Lillard's assists arent going to up if not way up. Our guys are going to be soooooo wide open its ridiculous.
I do think Lillard had to create a lot of offense last season because we had no good options. He really excelled in that role. This year there'll be more skilled teammates which gives him a great opportunity to increase his assists and his own scoring efficiency. But its not a guarantee he does so. Some players play better being able to selfishly chuck, hopefully Damian is a more complete player than that.
One of the biggest criticisms of Lillard throughout the year was that he too often seemed focused on creating for teammates in the first half rather than creating offense for himself, and didn't become "selfish" until midway through the third. Hopefully, a more fully rounded-out roster will improve the effectiveness of his creating. I wish someone kept track of "bricked assists"--Dame would have been pretty high on that list...
What bullshit. Lillard was just a rookie last season. He got a lot of minutes because we had zero depth, but that hardly helped his stats. And, his "just a tick above league average" PER of 16.4 was better than Derrick Rose's rookie PER of 16.0. BNM
I think Lillard will be similar to Roy was in the SG world. Kobe and Wade were always the undisputed 1 and 2 guys in that category, then came in Roy. Problem is there are more elite PGs right now than there were SG back then, but I think Lillard will fit into that same just below elite guys like Wade and Kobe were at the time.
Don't tell that to (Insert random blogger here) because it would poke holes in his (Insert random hyperbole here).
