For the second installment of my rookie regards, I’m going
with a pretty easy pick. I wanted to
hold off for a while on doing a write-up on Damian Lillard. For one, he’s a pretty obvious selection for
Rookie of the Year, and I was hoping to focus on some of the first year players who
haven’t been getting noticed as much. On
top of that, there’s also the fact that I’ve spent quite a bit of time lauding
him in previous posts. Then on Sunday
night, I watched as Lillard knocked down a game winning 3-pointer over Ryan
Anderson to seal a Portland victory over New Orleans and rival rook Anthony
Davis. Sorry, I just can’t wait on this
one any longer.
It’s not often that I keep up with college basketball,
outside of March Madness. Last season
though, I did follow Oakland University, the school I am currently attending,
as they had the nation’s leading scorer in Reggie Hamilton. I would sporadically follow a guard who
was second to Hamilton in points per game, but was blowing him out of the water in the
draft prospects. That guard was Lillard, a redshirt junior from Weber State University.
Lillard was taken 6th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2012 NBA draft after finishing his college career as the second leading
scorer in Weber State history, even without a senior year. Portland has been cursed with talented draft
picks that never stayed healthy for nearly 40 years, including Bill Walton, Sam
Bowie, Greg Oden and Brandon Roy.
Anybody who was a fan of them wanted to see them get a quality pick to
work out for them. LaMarcus
Aldridge needed some decent back up as well.
We first saw Lillard light things up in the NBA during the
2012 summer league. He averaged 26.5
points, 4 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game, earning him co-MVP honors with
Josh Selby. The regular season rolled
around and Damian didn’t disappoint.
Making his NBA debut against a star-studded Lakers team,
Lillard went off for 23 points and 11 assists.
This debut game put him in a class with Oscar Robertson and Isiah
Thomas, as players with at least 20 points and 10 assists in their first game. Lillard hasn’t let up much since then,
averaging 18.8 points and missing double figures in only 2 of Portland’s 23
games.
Scoring is not the best quality that Lillard has over
his fellow rookies though. That edge would be
his trustworthiness with the ball in his hands. When this guy’s running the point, he’s going
to know exactly what to do with the ball.
One key moment that proved that to me came on Sunday night at the end of
the Blazers game against New Orleans.
During Portland’s first chance to break the tie, the Hornets
took advantage of their foul to give and intentionally fouled Lillard with
under five seconds remaining. Damian
read the play and began to move into shooting position, putting up a shot that
did not earn him a trip to the line.
Officials determined that he wasn’t in proper shooting motion, but
rather just throwing the ball in the air in hopes of heading to the charity stripe.
Obviously he didn’t execute the play perfectly, but that’s not to say
Lillard wasn’t making a heads-up play.
On the next inbound, he got in good position to receive a pass and hit the
game winning 3-pointer, leaving only 0.3 seconds left on the clock.
Down the road, he may become comparable to Derrick Rose. Both are score first point guards with
similar skill-sets and size. Both players also know how to work with their teammates.
Lillard has gotten help from Aldridge and Nicolas Batum, and
the trio has led Portland to a record of 11-12 so far this season. Sure there’s plenty of room for
improvement. For a team that had such
low expectations though, staying in the playoff hunt is pretty impressive.
I’m definitely looking forward to watching this guy finish
his first season. He has a bright future ahead
of him, and it’s going to be very exciting to watch the player that he grows
into. Maybe he can finally be the one to
get the Trail Blazers back into title contention. Portland deserves a player who can do just that.
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