I've never been more excited for a losing season to start. I can't wait to see this guy play with LaMarcus. The wait is killing me!!!
Bayless had a similar handle, open court ability, athleticism and ability to get to the rim/draw fouls. But he lacked any real ability to run an offense or shoot a three pointer. If you took the best attributes of Bayless, Jarret Jack and Steve Blake, I think you'd have a pretty close approximation of Lillard. Jack because (judging by Summer League) Lillard seems to make the reasonably conservative/low turnover pass like Jack did. Not a "wow did you see that?" kind of passer, but the kind that sees the floor ok and can make the basic passes needed to run an offense. I think Lillard will look like a better passer than he truly is because his driving and shooting ability (and Aldridge) will create space for lots of those kinds of passes. Kind of like Tony Parker. Blake purely for the perimeter shooting. I don't know that he's that good, but he seems pretty darned good. To this comparison you have to pepper in a little of Roy's swag too.
I recall some passes he threw out of the P&R that were Sergio like. And I don't remember Jack ever throwing a lob like this: [video=youtube;0Xolq_1w77I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xolq_1w77I[/video] Maybe I'm getting too hyped. Sigh... But one thing I'm sure we all are glad of is that Nate isn't here to discourage the guy from taking risks like that.
I do remember him making some good quality pick-and-roll passes, and that lob is nicely done. So maybe calling him Jack-like is underselling a little, since his pick-and-roll game was pretty limited. I don't think he had the balls to throw a lob under McMillan. But I don't remember many Sergio-esque type passes from Lillard in SL. Sergio had a special gift for delivering the ball in crazy places with pinpoint accuracy. He had tons of flaws, but he did that exceedingly well. Even that lob in your clip is a fairly basic NBA point guard play-- you see a leaper leaking out ahead of everyone and it's the PG's job to deliver that pass. Lillard is very accurate to his credit, but it's not amazing (IMO). We've just had a lot of shitty PG's (aside from Andre/Segio) who didn't look for it (and probably couldn't throw it).
Maybe just a little. When I met Jerryd Bayless, he struck me as the most confident, driven-but-head-screwed-on-straight athlete with whom I had ever made eye contact. Until I met Brandon Roy, that is. I saw an interview of Lillard shortly after the draft, and I remember thinking to myself that he had that same something in his eyes that actually came through the friggin' camera. That, and it's VERY hard for me to pass up a chance to say that Bayless has Wally Gator arms...
