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If Lillard leads the team in win shares this season he will join a group of players that have led the Blazers in win shares in 3 different seasons.

Lamarcus Aldridge
Brandon Roy
Rasheed Wallace
Terry Porter
Clyde Drexler
Kiki Vandeweghe
Jim Paxson

The only Blazer to do it four times was Sidney Wicks.

I would like to see Dame really increase his assists this year

I just hope he combines his great shooting at the rim this past year, with the great 3pt shooting he showed a year ago. He could legitimately average 23-25ppg if he did so. That ought to get him so WSs.

Given Batum is gone, I think Lillard will increase his ast numbers this year, I think it has always been because he doesn't have the ball in his hands as much. I prefer him on the ball than off it. All the top Pgs save for Curry are on the ball a lot.

GreenRiddler wrote:I just hope he combines his great shooting at the rim this past year, with the great 3pt shooting he showed a year ago. He could legitimately average 23-25ppg if he did so. That ought to get him so WSs.

That'd be a sight for sore eyes if he did. Considering volume and shot circumstance (often not catch and shoot, but created himself), he was elite in both categories at each respective time.

I'm more worried about his A/TO ratio being good rather than just high assists.

Without Matthews, Aldridge and Batum, Dame is going to see a lot of trapping defenses designed
to limit his open looks at the basket.

Pnr Pnr Pnr

Dame needs to run those constantly and we have bigs that will actually be able to roll to the basket and catch lobs, providing Lillard learns how to be an effective ally ooper. Anyone know how many he threw last year? It was mostly Batum that threw lobs.

Honestly, I think Lillard is exposed this year and his value drops dramatically. I hope I am wrong of course. I would have tried to trade him to LA or Philly for their pick plus...

Effigy wrote:Honestly, I think Lillard is exposed this year and his value drops dramatically. I hope I am wrong of course. I would have tried to trade him to LA or Philly for their pick plus...

Honestly I expect Lillard to have a horrible season ending injury. Just a feeling.

Case2012 wrote:

Effigy wrote:Honestly, I think Lillard is exposed this year and his value drops dramatically. I hope I am wrong of course. I would have tried to trade him to LA or Philly for their pick plus...

Honestly I expect Lillard to have a horrible season ending injury. Just a feeling.

Well i guess if you expect the absolute worst then you can't be anything but pleasantly surprised.. It must be too nice of a summer in Portland. You guys are suffering from cloud deficiency or something.

Effigy wrote:Honestly, I think Lillard is exposed this year and his value drops dramatically. I hope I am wrong of course. I would have tried to trade him to LA or Philly for their pick plus...

I think Lillard will get a bit exposed as well, the game plan vs Portland should be an easy one, trap Lillard until the cows come home. I can see low percentage shooting (at high volume though obviously) and a LOT of turnovers on the horizon.

I absolutely disagree with trading him though. If we traded him, we would literally be throwing away our only player who can even be remotely considered a star.

Even ignoring the bust potential (which D'Angelo Russell's summer league performance has opened up serious questions about), it'd be an awful lot to put your fan-base through going from 3rd/4th seed contention (prior to Wes' injury), to being practically Philly 2.0.

Adding in Lillard's like-ability, market-ability and attitude towards everything Portland, keeping Dame was unquestionably the right call imo.

Hopefully it's not even a 2 year "tank" (i.e. a season where you're wanting a bottom 3 seeding in the league and that Top 3 pick). For the 2016/2017 season, hopefully our young guys add to their game, and combined with a top 2016 draft pick, we can hopefully begin what Minnesota are looking to do this year, and what Utah successfully achieved in the second half of last year...... gaining some relevancy again.

Lillard's also going to be the major (and currently only) free agent draw card going forward as well. And given Portland's history in free agency, we'll need every bit of him and then some......

Norm2953 wrote:Without Matthews, Aldridge and Batum, Dame is going to see a lot of trapping defenses designed
to limit his open looks at the basket.

Agreed

Nonstop wrote:

Case2012 wrote:

Effigy wrote:Honestly, I think Lillard is exposed this year and his value drops dramatically. I hope I am wrong of course. I would have tried to trade him to LA or Philly for their pick plus...

Honestly I expect Lillard to have a horrible season ending injury. Just a feeling.

Well i guess if you expect the absolute worst then you can't be anything but pleasantly surprised.. It must be too nice of a summer in Portland. You guys are suffering from cloud deficiency or something.

omg I snorted at cloud deficiency. It has been too sunny, it's true. WHERE IS MY OVERCAST?

Norm2953 wrote:Without Matthews, Aldridge and Batum, Dame is going to see a lot of trapping defenses designed
to limit his open looks at the basket.

I disagree. I think opposing defenses will instead focus on taking the ball out of his hands above the three point line. That way, he can't do his pull up three, nor really feed the pick and roll. If Dame breaks the trap and can get to the rim, I think opposing coaches would view that as a good tradeoff since this scheme would limit Portland's ability to close quickly from behind the arc. Lillard will get his points--I would rather he need 25 attempts to get 30 points than 20 attempts, and since Lillard doesn't draw fouls well going to the rim I think that's an easier way to do this.

Dame struggled some this past season with the trapping defenses with his shot but guys like
Matthews thrived from the open looks he got. The problem Portland will have this season is
that we don't (apparently) have any shooting threat from our wings leaving the other teams
to trap Dame at will and zone their big under the basket.

Portland seems to be counting on Meyers and CJ to replace their lost FA's. That's a tall task
for they got their open looks from Aldridge as a scoring threat.

The Sebastian Express wrote:

Nonstop wrote:

Case2012 wrote:
Honestly I expect Lillard to have a horrible season ending injury. Just a feeling.

Well i guess if you expect the absolute worst then you can't be anything but pleasantly surprised.. It must be too nice of a summer in Portland. You guys are suffering from cloud deficiency or something.

omg I snorted at cloud deficiency. It has been too sunny, it's true. WHERE IS MY OVERCAST?

CLIMATE CHANGE ISN'T REAL.

Case2012 wrote:

Effigy wrote:Honestly, I think Lillard is exposed this year and his value drops dramatically. I hope I am wrong of course. I would have tried to trade him to LA or Philly for their pick plus...

Honestly I expect Lillard to have a horrible season ending injury. Just a feeling.

Honestly I expect Lillard to tire of basketball by midseason, quit, and become a cricketeer. Just a hunch!

The Sebastian Express wrote:It has been too sunny, it's true. WHERE IS MY OVERCAST?

I've been camping

damn, LMA makes things easier for Dame, but its like y'all think he can't play without him, exposed? smh. This past year Vs a tough Utah defense, GSw defense and even VS the Nets twice. Both great games for him.

And as far as traps and leaving shooters open, we have cutters now and athletic guys who can finish at the rim with ease. Plus a couple of really good catch and shoot 3 point guys in CJ and Meyers and Crabbe who should get better there with a more consitent role, Dame did survive like 50 games of Batum shooting below 30% from 3.

Effigy wrote:Honestly, I think Lillard is exposed this year and his value drops dramatically. I hope I am wrong of course. I would have tried to trade him to LA or Philly for their pick plus...

Replace independence with Lillard and Bingo. We always wanted a PGOFT, but why go with that? We can get a Lotto pick, that can be anything...maybe even another PGOFT, you know we always wanted one of those.