1. Damian Lillard ends season top 3 in MVP voting
Damian Lillard had himself a great summer. He signed a four-year, $196 million supermax extension with the Portland Trail Blazers to keep him in Rip City over the next six seasons. He released his third rap album and beat Shaquille O’Neal in a rap battle.
At 29, Lillard is in his basketball prime and after going farther in the playoffs than he has before, he is going to come into this 2019-20 hungrier than ever.
Lillard is the face of this Blazers franchise and he gets all the praise or all the blame. He is arguably the best point guard in the NBA, along with Stephen Curry. If the Blazers have a great season, it is going to be because of Lillard.
He seems to get better and better every year and if it wasn’t for the crazy triple-double stats put up by James Harden or Russell Westbrook the last few years, Lillard might have won an MVP already.
This Blazers team has a chance to be one of the top teams in the league and if they can stay inside the top four in the West and Lillard puts up his normal 27 points, 6.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 1.1 steals to go with great shooting, he should be one of the top three on the MVP ballot.
Lillard is the most valuable player on the Blazers and without him, they are not a playoff team. Voters should know that by now. If they don’t know that yet, when this team wins more games than they are predicted to, they will look to Lillard at the main reason why.
Winning an MVP is no easy task and there are a ton of talented players in the league, but In 2017-18, Lillard finished fourth in the MVP voting and should be on the list again this year.