Everyone knows it, from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to the newest Portland newborns, 85% of whom are swaddled in “Letter O” jerseys before they’re two minutes old.
He’ll surpass Clyde in assists as well, moving into the #2 spot, passing Terry Porter for the lead spot the season after.
Is 120 points per game a good scoring average? Sure, but not if you allow the opponent 124.
Ironically, he just posted the best playoffs showing in franchise history in the exact year that the value of same is drifting into doubt.
High-scoring guards have prospered through most of the millennium, but Lillard’s precursor arrived in 2009, in the form of Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
He has since emerged to stand side-by-side, or nearly so, with the future Hall-of-Famer.
Just as Curry paved the way for Lillard, the duo together have opened doors for a whole new style employed by multiple guards across the league.
The ongoing 2021 post-season has given us multiple examples of young players who, if not a threat to the Lillard-Curry Crown, at least are getting close enough to that level to dampen the advantage of the league’s best pair of guards.
We’re not even mentioning the crop of really good point guards that their respective teams are excited about: Jamal Murray, De’Aaron Fox, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and, of course, Ja Morant.
Few among the assembled names rise to Lillard’s desirability level.
More players are close to Lillard now than were two years ago, even with him playing the best basketball of his career.
Aside from Anthony Davis in some cases, you can’t imagine replacing any of these players with one of their NBA colleagues and getting anything close to the same result.