Lillard goes absolutely OFF in the second half. 12 straight buckets.

Lillard is making me become a Lillard Only Fan. LOF.

 

As Lillard is on my fantasy team (used my 5th pick on him, no regrets!), i watch most if not all of his games. For those who are saying that he will not be able to keep up this production, i strongly disagree.

Lillard has the complete skill set for a point guard, he can penetrate, shoot, pass, and more importantly, he makes a lot of good decisions. He doesn't have the athleticism of Westbrook, but he is still pretty fast and he seldom turns the ball over because of him trying to force things.

One thing I'm impressed about him is how even though he is a rookie, he plays the point guard role well. Most young point guards are always concerned with what to do with the ball: about how to score, how to get an assist. Lillard knows when to give up the ball to his teammates. He lets matthews and batum do his thing, he lets aldridge posts up, and when he needs to, he works the pick and roll or he goes one on one. He spreads the ball among his team very well and puts them in good situations to score. That is his greatest value as a point guard.

Not to mention, this guy is not afraid to make the big shots. Just look at how he played against us in one of the games this season. Taking jeremy lin one on one to tie the game? Sure. Taking parsons one on one in overtime twice to give the team the lead? Done.

I watched the game yesterday of golden state vs portland. Everyone in portland was struggling and portland was down big. Lillard was the only one that stepped up and took matters into his own hands. That is just impressive considering he is still a rookie (yeah I know he went to college for 4 years, but its still impressive). Yesterday's match wasn't just an anomaly, Lillard has been making 3s all year. He averages 2.3 3s made a game. To put everyone into perspective, Harden makes 2.0 a game and Parsons makes 1.8 a game, and Houston plays MUCH up tempo than Portland.

As for his field goal percentage, a large portion of his shots come for 3 point land. I don't have any advanced stats to back this up, but this is just from my observation from my experience watching him.

The only thing I don't like about him is that he tends to fadeaway on his pull up jumpshots, but i guess he can probably fix that. He is a really humble guy, check out his videos on Youtube! Lillard will not be a bust and he has a very very bright future.

For those who are still not convinced, check this video out, and I hope you're convinced!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUaPpgDpa9w
(sorry i don't know how to embed it)

 

embed

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AUaPpgDpa9w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

double standard....Lin drops 38 and it's who cares, harden's out...even when he was in NY it was "ohhh people will scout him and make adjustments"

no one is saying "ohh Lillard is a rookie, we dont really have a lot of tape yet, once he's scouted he'll get figured out"

Not to hate on Lillard, he's on my fantasy team, but clear double standard.

 

Only MJ and Magic had better rookie seasons than Kyrie? You may want to try again.

 

Umm star players usually shoot over 42%.

 

I don't think Lillard is as good as Irving. Doesn't make him a role player though. I think Irving can reach prime CP3 level while Lillard is closer to Tony Parker level.

 

You got a point mate.

 

i'll put him closer to Tyreke, Ben Gordon, Monta Ellis..than to D Rose or Kyrie.

All are great comparisons, so I don't think that's a slight

 

Lillard will get better of course, but he won't elevate his game by much. I find it hilarious that people can make blanket statements like "if you're that good as a rookie, you're going to get better". Not like there haven't been a ton of guys who didn't get much different from their rookie seasons till now, and guess what, most of them spent 4 years in college.

Instead of making blanket statements, explain which part of the game he will improve drastically? There are somethings that can't be taught, not like he can get quicker or jump higher. His jumper is already pure, and he will never become a steve nash like assistmaker. He seems to be very composed on the court, unlike some rookies. On the defensive side, sure he will improve as most rookies do.

Bottom line unless he turns into a Kobe-like jump shooter (being able to hit contested jumpers at will) or magically gains elite court vision he's not going to be much better than he is right now.

I see his peak at 22 PPG, 8 APG on decent percentages. Still very good, but not much different than his current production.

 

lin y u no play like lillard

 

He can improve in every stat category. It all depends on how hard he works on it. To say he has peaked at age 22 with less than half a season under his belt I say is pretty premature.

 

Sure....

 

Simple....

Lillard is consistently dropping 18-20 points for the Blazers and consistently being a high impact player.

Lin, however, is about as inconsistent as they come. Can go for 20 points and 8 assists or so one night, then put up a 7 point 5 assist night on poor shooting.

 

Well well, look who's making blanket statements. Silly ones at that. Do you laugh at yourself?

If Lillard becomes an efficient "22/8", plays good defense, becomes better at taking care of the ball, gains veteran savvy (plus the "intangibles" that go along with it) and stops being a yoyo like most rookies, he will indeed be significantly better than he is now. Maybe a top 5 PG. In fact, 22/8 is a line Tony Parker NEVER achieved.

Take your own advice and drop the blanket statements about a rookie who's only played 36 games. LOL! Let's see where he goes. After Lillard has had 82 games to gauge his abilities/limitations and an offseason to prep himself based on that experience, maybe blanket statements would be in order this time next year.

 

I watched this kid play some in the Big Sky Tournament last year. He was good but not this good. Very surprising he's been able to improve that much from senior year college to potential ROY.

Also interesting he played for Weber State in college and not some bigger name.

 

Watching that video reminded me of when I'd set my 3 point gameslider in 2k to 100 lol. Dude is insane.

 

He was actually quoting me on that So I appreciate someone fighting my battle for me! Haha.

I'm not going to argue if Lillard is a good player or not. He's going to prove these people wrong, so I don't have to! Will keep this thread in mind in a few years. Interesting to make people look back, "Boy, was I wrong".. And trust me, you will!

 

3-13 shooting tonight.

 

KD and LA should have just played a game of 1-on-1 to settle it. They were great. Ibaka was out. Thabo was out. WB was awful. K-Mart was off-the-charts terrible. Collison and Deandre Liggins made the difference. And maybe Perk.

LA was the only Blazer that showed up. If any other Blazers starter had played above-average, they would have won.