Damian Lillard Is NBA's Next Rising Star Who Must Rebuild Reputation on Defense
Damian Lillard's offense has finally come around. After making just 10 of his 37 field-goal attempts in Games 1 and 2 (losses to the Memphis Grizzlies), the 24-year-old exploded for a postseason career-high 32 points in Monday night's 99-92 Game 4 victory.
"He showed why he is one of the best point guards in this league," teammate Nicolas Batum told reporters after the contest, per Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com.
But there's long been a caveat to Lillard's status as an emergent floor general: that nagging matter of his pedigree on the defensive end. Making real inroads into a lengthy postseason run will require real two-way prowess—and progress—from the Weber State product.
That was never clearer than in Game 4. Despite the win, and despite Lillard's heroic role in said win, his individual defense wasn't stellar. Playing in the absence of Memphis starter Mike Conley, reserve point guards Nick Calathes and Beno Udrih combined for 25 points and six assists on Monday. Lillard wasn't guarding them on every possession, nor was he particularly successful when he did.
Through the series' first three games, Conley averaged 16 points without topping 29 minutes in any of the contests.
And throughout the regular season, Portland was significantly better defensively when Lillard wasn't on the floor. According to NBA.com, the Trail Blazers allowed 102.7 points per 100 possessions when he played and just 97.5 points per 100 possessions when he didn't.
How did it come to this? What happens next? And can Portland take its title hopes to another level with a defensively reinvented iteration of its star point guard?
The Backstory
You have to view Lillard's defense deficit in context. The third-year pro hasn't had long to perfect his craft. Nor is he alone among defensively challenged megastars—the reputation has similarly followed the likes of Kyrie Irving and, until this season, James Harden.
The narrative has some staying power. The Oregonian's Jason Quick pled for improvement back in March, 2014:
"Lillard, meanwhile, is a beautiful player. Love his fearless demeanor and his undeniable skills, and knowing that he will never shrink away from any moment, or any matchup. But he needs to play better defense. Asking him to be a stopper is unrealistic at this point in his career. But how about serviceable? Is that too much to ask?
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Quick presciently added: "In the playoffs, the Blazers could face teams with point guards like Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Stephen Curry or Russell Westbrook."
Add Conley—and his backups—to that list.
Lillard and his Trail Blazers eventually lost 4-1 to the San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals. Parker opened that series with his best game of the playoffs, a 33-point and nine-assist effort that tells you all you need to know about Lillard's stopping power. Lillard conceded 10 more assists to his veteran counterpart in Game 2, then another 29 points in Game 3.
So it was no surprise when more criticism emerged in June, this time from one of the game's all-time great perimeter defenders. Gary Payton told CSNNW.com's Chris Haynes it was all about Lillard's mentality.
"He can be like Patrick Beverley [of the Houston Rockets] if he wants to, but that's a mindset. I think Damian has to be willing and ready to play that type of way. Right now, he's scoring so easily, and he's so good at the offensive end, he doesn't have to think about defense. He doesn't have to think about it because he knows he can outscore somebody.
He can have 35 [points] when he wants to and that’s where the game is going right now. But we have to get that out his mindset. If he wants to be a two-way guard and have his name in a legacy for being that way, he has to step it up on the defensive end.
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Diagnosing the problem is half the battle, so perhaps we're one step closer to figuring Lillard out. He has the quickness and athleticism to do what he wants defensively. He has the mental tools, too—intensity, focus, fearlessness. You don't take fourth quarters over without those personality traits.
But something's clearly missing‚ be it the will or effort or practice habits. Just don't blame head coach Terry Stotts.
"It's all about your mentality," Payton added. "You can't teach nobody nothing about good defense. All you can do is if you have good hands, good feet and you get the mindset that you're going to sit down and lock somebody up."
For his part, Lillard has defended himself far more aggressively than opposing point guards. In an interview with Quick in March 2014, he painted a slightly more complicated picture:
"What do I need to do? I'm out here going through 80 pick and rolls, 60 pick and rolls a game, using that same amount of pick and rolls. If you go to look at film -- and that’s why I say 'are you looking at box scores or are you actually watching the game?' If you look at film, I'm not just out here getting scored on. How many people iso me and break me down and score? Or is it pick and roll?
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So maybe team defense is partially to blame for the numbers Lillard's yielded over the years. But even he conceded there was room for growth at the time.
"I feel like I can improve on the defensive end," he told Quick. "A second-year player, I'm still learning things. You know, it takes time. But for me, it's starting to feel like that's the easy thing to say."
Again, context is key. A fair assessment has to account for the sheer prevalence of talented point guards and their frequent use of the pick-and-roll. That puts the onus on others, not just Lillard. This is fundamentally a matter of shared accountability.
The Next Step
Without overstating the case against Lillard's defense, one can't help but hope for better. Portland needs all the elite two-way help it can get, both now and in future endeavors. The Western Conference's perimeter scorers are too good to settle for anything less.
Perhaps he'll never be his position's Kawhi Leonard or Paul George, but one wonders what's preventing him from becoming the best point-stopper this side of Chris Paul.
Experience should help. There's a learning curve associated with documenting other players' tendencies, knowing their wheelhouses and reacting appropriately.
The improvement will be more gradual than overnight. Lillard won't be locking anyone down this week or next. But he could be a difference-maker on both ends of the floor this time next year. If you're a Trail Blazers fan, that's your best bet.
Harden rectified his defensive reputation in this—his sixth—season. By that math, it may take Lillard another two or three campaigns to do the same. And he'd do well to follow in Harden's footsteps—his increased attention to detail, his commitment to staying in front of scorers.
Bleacher Report editor and resident Trail Blazers expert Bryant Knox diagnosed some of the Lillard's specific problems in an email to B/R:
"In one-on-one situations, he has trouble recovering from crossovers and ball fakes. It's as if no one ever told him to watch the core of the ball handler and not the ball itself.
Quicker lateral movement would not only help him recover when he falls for a fake, but a stronger first step could also prevent him from being duped altogether.
Pick-and-roll defense is also a problem. He too often gets caught on the hip of the screen. This, as well as his troubles defending isolation sets, is probably why he was dead last in opponent field-goal percentage at the rim for players who logged more than 34 minutes per game during the regular season.
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Note that much of the problem is fairly fundamental—and presumably fixable—in nature. There's light at the end of this tunnel.
If, or when, Lillard finds his defensive footing, some criticism may endure.
These kinds of stories die hard, particularly when a team underachieves collectively. However one distributes blame, Lillard has an opportunity to make an even bigger name for himself. With offensively gifted point guards in high supply, he could differentiate himself with a grittier brand of basketball, the kind of shutdown mindset Payton cited a year ago.
Portland's defense was solid this season, ranking 10th in efficiency by allowing 101.4 points per 100 possessions (per Hollinger Team Stats). That was just slightly ahead of the usually stingy Chicago Bulls, so Stotts finds his club in decent company.
But he also finds himself in a conference dominated by exceptional two-way operations like the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Spurs—teams that can score and defend with equal ease. Ascending to those heights won't be the doing of one man alone.
But nor will it happen without total buy-in from Lillard. As a leader and tone-setter, his defense may be a prerequisite for team success. Until then, it remains an obnoxiously convenient scapegoat in times like these.
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