Damian Lillard’s offensive performance this season can no longer be described as “good”. This season, he averaged 32.2 points on 20.7 shots per game, setting a career-high offensive firepower. And the secret to playing the hottest offensive performance of his career at the age of 32 is precisely relying on the “magic ball” shooting mode. How is his performance? Let’s find out:
Damian Lillard’s offensive performance this season can no longer be described as “good”. This season, he averaged 32.2 points on 20.7 shots per game, setting a career-high offensive firepower. And the secret to playing the hottest offensive performance of his career at the age of 32 is precisely relying on the “magic ball” shooting mode. How is his performance? Let’s find out:
The Blazers have changed from the previous 1 inside and 4 outside positions to a 5-out position this season. Nurkic’s outside improvement this season is visible to the naked eye, from the original inside behemoth to an extended center who can throw inside. This change in positioning, coupled with Billups’ average ball possession performance at the beginning of the season, and each player has a certain outside performance, has allowed us to expand our offensive space.
Nurkic’s three-point shooting rate this season is as high as 36.1%, which is already a qualified extension insider.
The more floor space the offense has, the better Lillard’s shots are at the rim. In particular, his personal cut-in singles performance has improved this year. Whether it is speed, explosive power or confrontation, it seems to be better than last year before the injury. In addition, the frequency of his inside shots and fouls this season has also increased a lot compared to before. Lillard has never been the kind of play that pulls the bar to dodge the defender, but is good at the torso confrontation, pushing the defender away with his left hand, while maintaining his body balance, clearing the layup space and laying up.
Lillard’s cutting damage is excellent
This style of play is not only useful when cutting to the basket, but also helps Lillard draw fouls. This point has been mentioned before, so I won’t repeat it here. The advantage of being able to make fouls is to prevent opponents from excessive physical confrontation. Lillard only played 58 games this year, but made 202 shooting fouls throughout the season and created an average of 9.6 free throws per game, both career highs. Since they dare not fight physically, the defender will give Lillard more space when he makes a layup. Lillard’s field goal percentage from 0-3 feet this season is as high as 67.1%, which is also the best performance of his career.
Excellent leg explosiveness makes it difficult to limit his three threats.
When it comes to the magic ball shooting mode, in addition to the basket, it is the outside line. Lillard averaged 11.3 three-pointers per game this season, not only the most in the league this season, but also the most three-pointers per game in a single season except for Harden and Curry. Lillard’s shooting pattern is very similar to that of Harden in the scoring champion period. He also relies on a large number of outside shots, substituting quantity for quality.
Lillard has been the league’s top pull-up machine.
Just looking at 37.2% shooting from the field doesn’t do justice to these players who take a lot of pull-up shots from the outside. When judging outside shots, it is easy for everyone to fall into the myth of high shooting percentage and high efficiency, but ignores the offensive positioning and shooting patterns of different shooters. Players such as Kennard and Thompson have excellent shooting percentages, but their job is to catch and shoot the ball after dribbling 10 times with Lillard, and the difficulty is not the same. Of course, it is not meant to compare players with different positions between off-ball shooters and offensive initiators, or to deny the tactical value of off-ball shooters. The ball shooter is poor, which is the conclusion of the league’s data analysis in recent years.
Therefore, compared with other offensive engines, Lillard’s pull-up outside shot hits 2.7 this season, and the hit rate is 37.2%, which is higher than Young (1.6, 32.7%), Doncic (2.4, 34.4%) and Harden (2.0, 37.6%) etc. are of superior quality, precisely because of the aforementioned Trailblazer 5-out position. The Blazers shooters have a very good hit rate. Standing in the corners on both sides of the defense, the containment power is great, not only for Xiao Li to get the most cutting space, but also for Xiao Li to create more opportunities for singles or pick-and-rolls at the top of the arc.
Lillard’s long range also has unexpected benefits for his isolation. In the pick-and-roll, the general players are to avoid the screen. When the big man sets the screen on the three-point line, the ball holder will stick to the long man when the pick-and-roll goes around the screen, and the priority is to get through the POA. But Lillard’s pick-and-roll logic is different. He will choose to go farther above the long man, even 3-5 feet from the three-point line, and the purpose of the single file is only to create a defense change, allowing him to find space for outside shots, and then a 30-foot shot. This season Lillard shot 35% of shots over 30 feet. Compared with his 37.1% shooting rate of ordinary three-pointers, it can be said that he has turned shots beyond 30 feet into conventional weapons.
And Lillard has been able to turn unreasonable shots into points in the past few years. Take Xiao Li’s 71-point game as an example. When the touch came, he was able to face the 6-10 Jabari Smith Jr. and pull up. His ability to ignore defense, coupled with his long-range shooting range, made him average 4.1 three-pointers per game this season, ranking first in the league. With all the above offensive skills, Xiao Li made 33 times of 30+ this season, 15 times of 40+ (the most in the league), 3 times of 50+, 2 times of 60+ (also the most in the league), and 1 time of 70+ (again the most in the league). Scoring feast. Remember, he only played 58 games.
He is absolutely capable of getting away from any defender.
The question is, Xiao Li’s offensive performance is so strong this season, but he can’t drive the team’s record, so is he a bad team? I think the definition of a brush is to hold the ball that does not match the strength, and the efficiency of brushing is below average. As the team’s No. 1 brother and the league’s Tier-0 scorer, Xiao Li shot the league’s high-standard shooting percentage. 20 shots are just right for the team’s leader, and the team’s poor record can also be attributed to the defense, the tank period and the inaction of the team’s top management. Rather than saying that Lillard is a brush, it is better to say that his offensive firepower alone is not enough to help the team reach the playoffs.
This kind of operation forced away the first player in team history, Joe Cronin, are you happy?
2023-08-30 06:18:35
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