Niko Konstantellis
Photo Courtesy of Craig Mitchelldyer of USA TODAY Sports
Damian Lillard is no stranger to being underappreciated. Coming out of high school in 2008, Lillard was only a 2-star recruit, with 12 offers coming from primarily mid-major programs. He decided to continue his athletic career at Weber State, a small Division 1 school in Utah not known for producing any NBA talent. But Dame knew he could do it, he had something to prove. Lillard would be named Big Sky Conference player of the year twice during his four years at Weber State, averaging 18.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.5 assists en route to being selected in the first round of the 2012 NBA draft. With the sixth overall pick, the Portland Trailblazers took a chance on an unknown kid from a small school. But even after eight years of league-wide dominance, numerous all-star nods, and statistics the league has never seen, Lillard somehow still needs to prove himself to NBA fans.
Earlier this week, the NBA announced their All-Star starters and to the surprise of many, Damian Lillard was not amongst the names given this honor. Despite matching his career-high 30.0 points per game, as well as his Win shares per 48 of 0.225, Lillard was left off the list of Western Conference starters. Win shares per 48 calculates a player’s responsibility for their team’s total victories, assuming all players played the full duration of the game. With the league average at 0.100, Lillard is well above the majority of the NBA this year, sitting at 12th overall across the league. Among those surprised with Lillard’s omission was Luka Doncic, who many believe undeservingly received a starting role over Lillard. In a press conference this weekend, Doncic spoke on this, saying, “I didn’t expect that I was going to start this game. I know that maybe [Damian] Lillard deserved it more than me.” Going into the season, Doncic was the MVP favorite and it seems that bias carried over into the voting of starters. However, when comparing their statistics, it is clear Lillard has a better case for MVP, let alone NBA All-Star. When taking a look at advanced statistics alone, Damian Lillard is clearly having the stronger season. Dame has a higher player efficiency rating, true shooting percentage, win share, and win shares per 48 minutes.
These numbers, paired with his MVP level stat line should have been enough to make an argument for him to start. However, Luka’s public name recognition and early season MVP popularity ultimately gave him the edge over the clearly more deserving Lillard.
PER or Player Efficiency Rating is a formulated system to calculate a player’s per minute, pace-adjusted contribution to their team. In 10 of the past 12 seasons, the NBA MVP has been the league leader in PER; currently, Damian Lillard has the fifth-highest rating across the league.
Among active NBA players, Lillard has the 11th highest career PER, with everyone ahead of him almost guaranteed Hall of Famers. Among all-time NBA players, Lillard ranks higher than greats such as Julius Erving (21.97), John Stockton (21.83), Allen Iverson (20.92), and over 40 spots higher than the former two time NBA MVP Steve Nash (19.95). Despite consistently finishing towards the top of the league in PER at the end of the season, Lillard has only finished within the top 5 of MVP voting once in his eight full seasons. While PER is certainly not the be-all-end-all when it comes to the MVP decision-making, his constant success in this area, paired with his overall statistics and constantly bringing his team to the playoffs, Lillard deserves more respect when it comes to end of season voting.
To the casual NBA fan, Lillard’s name is probably most recognizable for his incredible, improbable, and ultimately impressive buzzer-beating shots. In his relatively short career, “Big Game Dame” already has some of the greatest all-time game-winning shots.
In what has now become known as “Dame Time,” Lillard takes over and has been the best clutch player in the league. According to Elias Sports Bureau, since he entered the league in 2012, he has nine game-winning shots in the final five seconds of a game, good for one more than LeBron James, and two more than players like Steph Curry, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, and Russell Westbrook. Further than that, according to Stat Muse, in clutch time (5-point games in the last 5 minutes) this season, Lillard leads the league in points, FG%, 3-pt%, and overall record. While a player like Robert “Big Shot Rob” Horry might come to mind in comparison (nickname associated with clutch shooting, memorable playoff buzzer-beaters), the difference between him or any other player of the sorts and Lillard is Dame consistently being the league’s best in crunch time.
Despite the incredible statistics Damian Lillard regularly puts up, his underappreciation comes down to comparisons between him and other point guards in the league. Lillard is often compared to the league’s best point guards. However, he is looked at in comparison to specific aspects of other’s skill sets. But what some skeptics fail to recognize is that although he might not be the best in these specific categories, he is the best combination of all of them. While he may not go down as the greatest three-point shooter of all time like Steph Curry, he is a career 37% three-point shooter. Even from “Curry Range” Lillard shoots an impressive 47% shooting percentage on shots from 35-39 feet in comparison to Curry’s putrid 13%. And although he is not the explosive, athletic rarity that Russell Westbrook is, Lillard is still a guard with the ability to attack the paint and is even a former dunk contest participant. Finally, while he may not have the ball control and career mixtape of Kyrie Irving, Lillard is a former Skills Competition champion and has an impressive arsenal of handles himself.
Damian Lillard is not the greatest point guard of all time. Damian Lillard is not a top 5 point guard of all time. But he is special, he is incredible, and he is a talent the NBA has never seen before. The lack of respect is not new for Dame, and it probably will not go away. While the Trailblazers may never win a championship in his career, they will be a threat as long as he is around. In an interview with Stephen A. Smith in 2019, when asked if he would think about signing anywhere else, he responded with no recitation; “Why would I be?” Portland fans, you have a good one, be thankful because Dame Time isn’t going anywhere.
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