Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard Is The Next All-Time Great Guard

When thinking about guards that are considered “all-time greats”, a few things usually come to mind in terms of qualities and characteristics. They are all overly competitive, great scorers and unbelievably clutch performers in crunch time.

The Portland Trail Blazers‘ Damian Lillard is all of those things, and he may be on his way to something bigger than just being an All-Star.

Lillard came into the NBA as an underrated point guard because he played for a college that was not in one of the bigger NCAA conferences. Nevertheless, he wasted no time in putting the league on notice that he was coming, and that he was not afraid of anyone no matter how much bigger or better they were.

In his rookie season, Lillard averaged 19 points per game on 42.9 percent shooting to go along with 6.5 assists per game. Lillard’s 38.6 minutes per game also ranked up there with the most in the league, so he got plenty of opportunity to prove himself.

Sure enough, Lillard impressed and proved himself to be a clutch scoring threat when his team needed him the most.

Lillard hit multiple big shots down the stretch for a Trail Blazers team that needed some scoring punch, and his emergence not only put points on the scoreboard for Portland, but he also gave forward LaMarcus Aldridge hope that the Blazers could contend for a title if he stayed and continued to expand his game.

Lillard went on to win the KIA NBA Rookie of the Year award, and sent a message to the rest of the league that his reign of terror was not finished.

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In his second year, Lillard became a flat-out stud at the point guard position despite not increasing some important numbers for a point guard including shooting percentage and assists.

However, Lillard continued to make major improvements to his three-point shot that was already a big weapon in his first season, and became more aggressive in attacking the rim, averaging 1.3 more free throw attempts per game than the previous year.

Big moments were Lillard’s favorite kind of in-game situations, as he never failed to put on a show when his performance counted the most.

Whether it was finding a teammate for an open shot, or creating offense of his own from anywhere on the floor, Lillard came through more times than not at the end of games, and flashed signs of being the next great offensive weapon down the stretch in the NBA.

This season, Lillard has taken his game to a completely different level, and has become nearly unstoppable in terms of scoring from the outside. Lillard is not only averaging career highs across the board, but his work in improving the little things has stood out to me the most.

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/24/2014.

Creating his own shot has never exactly been a problem for Lillard, but he has at times struggled the most when his defender gets a clean look at contesting the shot. Getting that extra step of separation was an issue for Lillard because his timing on his crossover was just a split second off and a little sloppy.

Now, Lillard seems to have fixed his crossover on his step-back shot, giving him even more room and an extra second to pull the trigger for a better look.

In this highlight clip below of the Trail Blazers’ triple overtime win over the San Antonio Spurs courtesy of YouTube’s Dawk Ins, Lillard shows off the improvements to his outside shot as well as his natural killer instinct when the game is on the line.

No Blazers player was more impactful than Lillard, who put on the most impressive total performance of his career to date against the defending champions.

In Portland’s last five games, Lillard has had two 40-plus point performances, and is showing no signs of slowing down one bit. Lillard is making a solid case for MVP right now, and has a great shot considering the race for the award has been wide-open to this point.

Is he done making improvements to his game? Not by a long shot. Lillard still has much-needed work to do on the defensive end. The good news is that his attitude is not the problem behind his defensive struggles. Rather, it’s more of not completely understanding the NBA game from that end of the floor quite yet.

As Lillard plays more games at this level, his comprehension of where to position himself on defense and how to help his teammates in trouble spots will improve, and he will become a much better defensive player than what he is now.

Lillard is slowly evolving into the NBA’s next great guard, in a mold similar to Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. Yes, Lillard is not a shooting guard and he is only in his third year, not having the same accolades as those greats, but hear me out on this one.

Lillard’s assassin mentality cannot be rivaled right now by anyone in the league.

His approach to the game combined with his athletic talents and shot making capabilities eerily mirror Jordan and Bryant, and his willingness to put the team on his back and carry them through the toughest of times is just like any of those Hall-of-Fame guards that have come before him.

Lillard isn’t just on his way to being a consistent All-Star caliber player; he’s on his way to full-blown superstardom. Not many players get a chance to chase what Lillard is, he’s simply a special talent that cannot be overlooked.

Look out NBA, Damian Lillard isn’t going anywhere. In terms of the best guards to ever play this game, he may just have next.

*Statistics courtesy of Basketball-Reference

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