Why the NBA has grown past Damian Lillard

The NBA playoffs are well underway, and on Thursday, one franchise that can claim a recent championship was officially eliminated from the field. The Milwaukee Bucks, who seemed primed to be the NBA’s next dynasty behind superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo a few short years ago, seem on the brink of disaster.

When did things start to fall apart for the Bucks? When they dealt a key piece of their championship team, Jrue Holiday, away despite his wanting to stay with the Bucks for the rest of his career, and replaced him with Damian Lillard.

On the surface, Lillard is one of the best players in the NBA, and only lacks all the accolades that some of his compatriots boast because he spent the vast majority of his career with a struggling organization.

However, the truth is that Lillard is more than a little responsible for the struggles of the Portland Trailblazers when he was with the team.

Lillard has always been an electric scorer, but electric and effective are far from the same thing. Lillard was oftentimes stagnant without the ball, which failed to put added pressure on defenses or create extra opportunities for his teammates the way that Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry has done throughout his career.

So while Lillard has always been capable of impressive scoring outputs, they’ve oftentimes failed to carry the same weight as others at his position who have proven themselves to be effective scorers.

Then there’s the matter of Lillard’s defense. Lillard has always been among the worst defenders in the league, leading to him being hunted on that end of the floor and compromising his team.

For these reasons, it’s not hard to see why the Bucks have failed to replicate their earlier success since bringing in Lillard. Now that the veteran is going to be coming off a massive Achilles injury, it appears that he’s the last one to realize the league has already passed him by.