Teams
Portland Trail Blazers - 2012-current
Playoffs
Appearances - 8 (2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021)
Conference Finals - 1 (2019)
NBA Finals - 0
Championships - 0
Awards and Honors
Rookie of the Year - 2013
All-NBA First Team - 1 (2018,2019)
All-NBA Second Team - 4 (2016,2018,2019,2020,2021)
All-NBA Third Team - 1 (2014,2017)
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Free Throw Percentage - #7
Three-Pointers Made - #10
Points Per Game - #16
Assists Per Game - #37
Total Assists - #91
League Leads
Three Pointers Made (#3-2014,2020,2021, #4-2016, #5-2013)
Total Points (#2-2020,2021, #5-2015,2016,2019)
Points Per Game (#3-2020,2021, #4-2018)
Free Throw Percentage (#2-2021, #3-2018,2019)
Total Assists (#5-2020)
Assists Per Game (#5-2020)
Damian Lillard was the second-leading scorer in the nation as a junior at Weber State, and was rated by many as the top college point guard that year, so he left school a year early to enter the NBA Draft, where he was selected #6 overall by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lillard was a great player from day one. In his first pro game, he scored 23 points and had 11 assists, becoming the third player ever to have at least 20 points and 10 assists in their debut game, joining Oscar Robertson and Allen Iverson. He finished the season averaging 19.0 points and 6.5 assists, and was the 4th player ever to be voted Rookie of the Year unanimously, after Ralph Sampson, David Robinson, and Blake Griffin.
Lillard averaged just over 20 points per game in each of the next 2 seasons, and was selected to the All-Star team both times, before elevating his game to superstar level in 2015-16, dropping 25.1 points per game and being named to the All-NBA Second Team for the first time. He has scored at least 25 points per game in each season since then, a streak that currently stands at 6 in a row.
After making the All-NBA First Team for the first time in 2017-18, Lillard was finally able to lead a deep playoff run the next year. He had previously led Portland to the second round twice, but in 2019 he led them to the Conference Finals, highlighted by a buzzer beater in the first round to cap off a 50-point performance. He suffered a rib injury in the Conference Finals, but continued to play through it, but it affected him enough that they lost the series to Golden State.
In 2019-20, Lillard pushed his scoring average up to 30 points per game for the first time, and also had 3 separate 60-point games on the season, becoming the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to achieve the feat. He was named the Player of the Seeding Games in the Orlando bubble, but Portland still fell in the first round of the playoffs despite his heroics.
Lillard was his usual great self last year, scoring 28.8 points per game to go with 7.5 assists, and he even had a playoff career-high 55 points in Game 5 against Denver, but his Trail Blazers lost in the first round for the 4th time in the past 5 seasons.
Lillard is one of the best shooters and scorers in the game today. In just 9 seasons he has already vaulted to #10 on the all-time list of 3-pointers made, and his career free throw average of .893 in the seventh-best of all time. He is also an underrated passer, averaging at least 5.5 assists in each of his 9 seasons, with a high of 8.0 in 2020. He hasn't been able to win a championship yet, but he is still just 31 years old, and with as much talent as he has, he will put his team in contention for years to come.
Extremely overrated player who doesn't belong anywhere near a top 100 players list. He's scored 30 PPG, great, so has Jerry Stackhouse. Lillard's actually a much worse defender than Stackhouse as well, yet Stackhouse isn't considered an all-time great despite being the better player. All Lillard has going for him is some clutch shots he hit in the playoffs. The fact that he's small undoubtedly makes him "more relatable" to the media and nerdy fans so he has a big fanbase, but that doesn't make him a good player. He's nowhere near the greatest Blazer ever, either.
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