I'm sorry for starting another thread but I would like to know, once and for all, your opinion on Lillard. It's not supposed to be a flame thread, I only want to know your honest opinion on the player Lillard. NOT the person, NOT the rapper, NOT the shoe seller, THE PLAYER. So, at least for this thread, it would be good if you could avoid considerations like "he's good for the community" etc etc Technically speaking, how many PG's would you choose in a playoffs series before him? I know I'm not popular in this forum but it would be cool if could be unbiased in your judgement, thanks.
I can only name 2 currently that I would consider and that would be Westbrook and Curry....... But if you add in his personalty and mentality and demeanor on the court.....I can honestly say I'd take Dame 1st. A bit biased, but I'd take Dame.
Lillard is in the bottom half of the second tier IMO, behind Steph, Westbrook, and CP3, on the same tier as Kyrie nd a number of others. He’s top 5-10 PGs in the league. *Edit because my iPhone keeps auto correcting Lillard to pillars.
Westbrook, Curry, Paul, Wall, Irving, Lowry, Thomas, Irving, Conley, Dragic, Bledsoe. Right now, Dame is not even a top 10 PG, but more of a chucker. He can play better though.
I don't like Westbrook and wouldn't want him on my team but I think it is fair to say he may be the better overall player. So I would rank it: Tier 1 Curry Westbrook Tier2 Lillard Paul Wall Irving Tier 3 Lowry whatever.... So I would only take Curry over Dame personally but I don't blame anyone for taking Westbrook over him as well. If Paul was 5 years younger I would take him over Dame. There is probably a decent-sized drop-off after Tier 1 though. And sorry, but I don't care what position he plays, Harden is a SG.
Nothing against you, really, I don't know any of you personally so even if you make it personal it doesn't bother me since I'm here only to discuss about my team BUT your judgement is SO BIASED. I don't blame you, you know Dame personally, you can't be unbiased, but let me tell you, people around other stars like Curry or Westbrook have only good words for them off the court and honestly on the court there's not even a discussion, they are clearly on different levels. Ask players, coaches, fans unbiased, nobody would put Lillard in the top 3 of PG's. What really bother me is that, I can't have an honest discussion about my team with you because nobody can judge our team like it is. I'm not an oracle of the truth, but you have to look at things outside of Blazers world, nobody ranks Lillard as high as Blazers fans and it's not a conspiracy against Lillard, it's just the truth. Conley, for example, doesn't rap, doesn't have a signature shoe and he's not "cool" but he was clearly better than Lillard in all of the past playoffs, people here ignore that, I don't know if it's only a biased judgement or simply people of Portland don't watch other teams.
It's ok. I'm just saying as of right now, I'd take those guys over Damian. Damian has played well enough in the past to be called a top 3 PG.
I said if we are starting a team 5 years ago I take Paul for sure. Now Paul is old and broken down. He has maybe 2 good productive years left imo.
Damian is one of the most likeable Blazers ever. He's like Brandon Roy, but if you take emotion out of it, and what you think of him as a person, he's not playing good basketball right now, and he's been prone to these types of streches through is career. A big difference between "good" players and stars is that consistancy.
I actually agree with the first three and have the next two on par with him but there aren't two Irvings in the league and if you are mentioning Bledsoe and Dragic, you should mention Walker too.
I just don't get some of these posts and opinions on Lillard. Lillard is the best player on our team. That's a fact. Are their other players in the NBA that are better? Sure. Who doesn't agree with that? Are their other pg's better than Lillard? Sure, again no one disagrees with that. But here is where things go weird. Since Lillard is not the best player or point guard in the NBA does that mean he sucks? Since Lillard is not the best player or point guard in the NBA does that mean we shouldn't have drafted him? Since Lillard is not the best player or point guard in the NBA does that mean we should not like him? Support him? Cheer for him? That's the argument it seems like some of you are trying to make and that is just silly. ... There has never been an opportunity to draft Curry or Westbrook or trade Lillard for Curry or Westbrook. The only point guard we honestly had an opportunity to trade Lillard for is Isiah Thomas. ... Lillard is not the reason why this team isn't a championship contender. Adding Curry or Westbrook to this team does not make the Blazers a championship contender. It doesn't even get us to the WCF. You swap out Lillard for Curry on the Warriors and the Warriors still remain the favorite to win the championship. You swap out Lillard for Curry on the Warriors and I promise you all of Lillard's stats would go up. Shooting %, 3pt %, Assists. Let's see if some of you can figure out why. ... Lillard is not the reason why the Blazers are not a championship contender.
So far this season Lillard is 4th in the league in scoring for all guards. 9th in the league in assists for all guards.
There are 29 other teams working their asses off to win a championship every year. Some of you base your entire "logic" on hindsight, as if it was sooooo clear that Westbrook would one day average a trip dub or steph curry would become the class of the league. Please, you wannabe nostradamus' don't know shit and didn't know shit. Put some respek on Dame's name.
"As of right now", but then you list Bledsoe and I. Thomas? Lowry's playing like ass this year also. Gimme a break.