Author: David Babb (In response to Nathan's article, see below) Damian Lillard has been in the league for 6 years now, each year he has played for the Portland Trailblazers. For his career he has averaged 22.9 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 6.2 APG with a 20.8 career PER and 54.8 win shares (estimate of number of wins contributed by a player) Kyrie Iriving, in 7 seasons has career averages of 22.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 5.5 APG with a 21.8 PER and 49.3 win shares. These stats alone make a compelling case for Dame Dolla. Now, let's dive into each player's season with the least amount of talent on their team. 2015-2016 Portland Trailblazers Their 44-38 record was good for 5th in the Western Conference Damian Lillard: 25.1PPG, 4.0RPG, 6.8APG, 22.2 PER, 9.2 WS, 3.7 net +/-, 56% true shooting percetnage and a 3.8 value over his backup. The rest of this team consisted of: CJ McCollum: 20.8 PPG, 4.3 APG Allen Crabbe: 10.3 PPG Al-Farouq Aminu: 10.2 PPG Mason Plumlee: 9.1 PPG, 7.7 RPG Gerald Henderson: 8.7 PPG Meyers Leonard: 8.4 PPG, 5.1 RPG Ed Davis: 6.5 PPG, 7.4 RPG 2013-2014 Cleveland Cavaliers Their record of 33-49 was good enough for a measly 10th place in the much weaker Eastern Conference Kyrie Iriving: 20.8 PPG, 6.1 APG, 20.1 PER, 6.7 WS, 3.2 net +/-, 53.3% true shooting percentage and a 3.3 value over his back up. Based on the numbers, his team had better individual performances: Dion Waiters: 15.9 PPG Loul Deng: 14.3 PPG, 5.1 RPG Spencer Hawes: 13.5 PPG, 7.7 RPG Tristan Thompson: 11.7 PPG, 9.2 RPG CJ Miles: 9.9 PPG Jarrett Jack: 9.5 PPG, 4.1 APG Anderson Varejao: 8.4 PPG, 9.7 RPG Andrew Bynum: 8.4 PPG, 5.3 RPG These teams finished very differently, despite what the stats seem like. At first glance, many would think that the Cavs of 13-14 would be the better team due to the amount of players putting up a good amount points. But the deciding factor was in the hands of each team's star, Lillard and Iriving. Lillard was able to elevate the performances of his teammate pushing them to the playoffs. Kyrie on the other hand was unable to bring his team to the playoffs despite being called a superstar by some. Other players who were able to bring crappy teams to the playoffs were: Dwyane Wade in the 2006-2007 season. Wade led the Heat to a 44-38 record (4th in East) with averages of 27.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 7.5 APG with a 28.9 PER and 8.8 WS. The next best player on the team was Shaq, and despite being a great NBA player, averaged only 17.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG at a 21.7 PER with 2.8 WS in 40 games. Dwyane Wade carried a team to the playoffs with Shaq limited to under 50% of the games. Carmelo Anthony in the 2005-2006 season. Melo led the Nuggets to a 44-38 record (3rd in the West) with averages of 26.5 PPG, 4.9 RPG, a 22.0 PER with 9.4 WS. The next best player, Andre Miller averaged 13.7 PPG, 8.2 APG, a 16.4 PER with 6.2 WS. Carmelo led an even shittier team than the 2013-2014 Cavs to the 3rd seed in the playoffs. THE THIRD SEED! WITH NOBODY OTHER CARMELO! Kyrie has never made the playoffs without another All-Star on the team. Damian Lillard has. Lillard led a team that lost LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, Wesley Matthews and Robin Lopez (their entire starting lineup excluding Dame) the previous offseason, to the playoffs, as the 5th seed. And yes, Dame has had CJ for the past several years, but CJ went from 3.8 PPG to 20.8 PPG on a team that nobody expected to make the playoffs. A lot of that credit needs to go to Damian. Another argument many people have is that Kyrie Irving is the most clutch player in the NBA. Yes he has hit a handful of game winners, yes he hit the game sealing shot in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, but he didn't do that alone. He had LeBron James, arguably the GOAT, average 29.7 PPG, 11.3 RPG and 8.9 APG compared to Kyrie's 27.1 PPG, 3.9 RPG and 3.9 APG. No disrespect to Kyrie's shot, but come on, LeBron was the reason that series even went to 7 games. He simply played lights out. Damian Lillard has also hit his fair share of clutch shots, does 2014 Blazers-Rockets round 1 series ring a bell? Down 2 with 0.9 seconds left? Oh yeah, Damian hit the game winning 3 pointer to win the Blazers that series. Yeah he is clutch too, in fact he has actually hit MORE game winners or shots to send the game to OT. Damian has hit 17 game winners or OT senders in his career, while Kyrie has hit only a very respectable 10 of such shots. Numbers don't lie ladies and gentlemen. Damian has the stats to back it up too. Damian Lillard is a better player than Kyrie Iriving. Also keep in mind, Damian is in a tougher conference and a smaller market. He doesn't get the credit he deserves. Had he been playing in a big market such as New York, LA, or even Boston, many more people would agree with this opinion. Fans need to look more at the stats and less at the "brand". Kyrie Irving has a HUGE name in the NBA, he gets a lot more credit and attention than Damian. But the numbers don't lie. Damian Lillard is massively underrated and under-appreciated. He deserves a lot more respect than he has gotten throughout his career so far. I'll leave Damian's buzzer-beater against the Rockets down below, enjoy:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives |