Damian Lillard Deserves To Be An All-NBA Lock
Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard was an egregious snub from the 2016 NBA All-Star Game. Rather than letting it happen twice, Lillard deserves to be a lock for the All-NBA Teams.
Between Stephen Curry‘s runaway MVP campaign and Russell Westbrook‘s endless supply of triple-doubles, making one’s name as a point guard hasn’t been easy in 2015-16. To make matters even more difficult, Kyle Lowry and Chris Paul have led resurgent contenders, and Isaiah Thomas has broken out as the leader of the Boston Celtics.
Easy as it has become for the masses to do, it’s vital that Damian Lillard is not overlooked come award season.
Lillard was egregiously snubbed from the 2016 NBA All-Star Game. It was the second consecutive season that such a baffling decision was made, as Lillard needed to be named to the 2015 squad as an injury replacement in order to earn the All-Star distinction.
Enough is enough.
Lillard has his flaws, but in 2015-16, he’s elevated his game to the point of being one of the best players in the NBA. Between his individual statistics and his leadership of the Portland Trail Blazers, Lillard has done everything possible to erase the remaining doubt.
No matter how many times he’s been underrated, Lillard has proven throughout the 2015-16 regular season that he should be a lock for one of the three All-NBA Teams.
Leading Severe Overachievement
In the eyes of the masses, the summer of 2016 was a proverbial death sentence for the Portland Trail Blazers. Franchise player LaMarcus Aldridge signed with the San Antonio Spurs, and fellow starters Arron Afflalo, Nicolas Batum, Robin Lopez, and Wesley Matthews all followed in his footsteps by leaving Portland.
Thus, a vast majority of fans and analysts around the Association pegged the Trail Blazers as a team that would be in contention for the No. 1 overall selection in the 2016 NBA Draft—not the playoffs.
Rather than allowing his team to drift into obscurity, Damian Lillard has led Portland to startling success. As both a floor general and an individual contributor, the 25-year-old has been the driving force behind Portland reaching its current status as a postseason contender.
Per David Aldridge of NBA.com, Lillard has maintained the stance that Portland is a postseason team since the very beginning of the season.
"I started believing in our team before the season. On media day, I said we could make the playoffs, and people looked at me like I was crazy. But I believed if we had our growing pains early we could compete, and we’ve done that."
No one else believed in the Trail Blazers, and anyone who says they did is probably lying to you.
The Trail Blazers are 37-36 with nine games remaining on the schedule. That record has Portland situated as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference standings, which is more than just a promising place to be—it’s a sign of extreme overachievement.
Between his leadership and his statistical brilliance, an All-NBA nod should be in Lillard’s future.
Value to the Wins
As previously acknowledged, the Portland Trail Blazers are better than they should be. The question, of course, is how much better is Damian Lillard making them when he’s on the court?
It doesn’t hurt to start with the fact that Lillard is No. 1 on the roster in points, assists, and 3-point field goals made per game.
To commence the deeper look into his value, NBA.com reports that Lillard creates 16.6 points per game via assists—No. 8 in the NBA. Coupled with his average of 25.7 points scored, Lillard is accounting for an extraordinary average of 42.3 points per game.
Overall, Lillard is directly responsible for 40.5 percent of the points scored by the No. 7 scoring offense in the NBA.
According to ESPN, Lillard’s usage rate of 31.5 percent is the fifth-highest of any player in the NBA. For those unfamiliar, usage rate measures the number of possessions a player utilizes per 100 possessions through statistics such as field goal attempts, free throw attempts, assists, and turnovers.
By that metric, Portland’s success has been built on Lillard using nearly one-third of its possessions.
Despite missing seven games, Lillard is No. 17 in the NBA in Win Shares and No. 12 in Value Over Replacement Player. None of this is to say that Portland has been a one-man show, but instead proof that Lillard’s role in their success deserves to be acknowledged and honored.
If none of this convinces you, then try the historic nature of his production.
Statistical Brilliance
Individually, Damian Lillard has been nothing short of a revelation. He’s posting career-best averages in points, assists, 3-point field goals, free throws made, and free throw attempts per game, and the highest usage rate and Player Efficiency Rating of his career.
That starts with his extraordinary scoring exploits.
According to Basketball-Reference.com, Lillard is on pace to join Michael Adams, Gilbert Arenas, Stephen Curry, Allen Iverson, Derrick Rose, and Russell Westbrook as the only point guards to average at least 25.0 points per game over the past 25 years.
Before that group of seven, which cuts off at Adams in 1990-91, no point guard had averaged at least 25.0 points since Calvin Murphy in 1977-78.
In other words, Lillard is scoring at a rate that only six other point guards have been able to since the end of the 1970s. In 2015-16 alone, he’s No. 5 in the NBA in scoring average, No. 8 in assists per game, and No. 3 in 3-point field goals made.
It’s always bigger than numbers, but averages of 25.7 points, 6.9 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 3.1 3-point field goals speak for themselves.
More hoops habit: Is Damian Lillard one of the Top 10 players in the NBA?
It’s half past time Lillard receives the respect he deserves as a 2015-16 All-NBA lock.