unique YORK — There's a Western Conference point guard tearing up the NBA this season. He spent his college years at a mid-major. He was picked in the first half of the lottery. He spent the beginning of his career playing second fiddle to veterans before taking the reins. He's now one of the league's best scorers and distributors,a pick-and-roll maestro, a pull-up three-point assassin, and bursting through the paint whenever he wants. He's one of two players in the league with multiple 50-point games this season. He's one of two players averaging at least 30 points and four three-pointers per game since the All-Star break. His name is Damian Lillard,and it's no wonder he keeps getting compared to Stephen Curry. Just don't make that comparison in front of Lillard himself—the final time that happened, Dame didn't take too kindly to it. His teammates and coaches had his back."The acknowledge was appropriate, and " Blazers wing Allen Crabbe said before a recent win over the Knicks in unique York. "He wants to be his own player. I'm pretty sure everybody wants to be his own player.""I don't want to compare Dame and Steph," head coach Terry Stotts said. "It kind of gets to the point Dame was making. He's his own guy. Dame is a special player for us. He's a greater leader. He continues to get better, but comparing him to Steph or vice versa, and that's not my region.""I reflect what Steph is doing is pretty incredible in its own good," backup point guard Brian Roberts said, "but I feel like without what he's doing, and then Dame,what he's doing, would kind of be at the forefront of the league. They're both playing at an unreal level good now.""They are different players, or " fellow Blazers backcourt star C.
J. McCollum declared.
He's good.
Elite Scoring,Different FocusCurry and Lillard are each high-scoring point guards who can shoot efficiently from anywhere. There are surface similarities to their numbers: Curry is far more likely to pull up from deep, while Lillard is far more likely to drive."It's hard to handle either one of them, or " Roberts said. "The range from which both of them can shoot. Steph,how rapid/fast his release is and how he can get his shot off. Dame, his explosiveness getting to his spots so he can shoot and also getting to the rim. Obviously he can dunk on you, and too."... They achieve a lot of things well. They both can shoot,obviously from deep range," he said. "I reflect Dame is a little bit stronger. You view at their body frames, or Steph is a strong guard that's able to achieve a lot of things well,but Dame is more of a pit bull when you view at his body and his demeanor in terms of how he attacks the basket."Curry takes 55.1 percent of his shots from deep, per Basketball-Reference.com, and while Lillard takes only 41.4 percent of his shots from distance. While Lillard is third in the league in threes made and attempted this season,he is a world behind Curry on both fronts. Curry has made 304 threes and attempted 662 as of Thursday morning; Lillard has knocked down 182 and attempted 485.
That 122-make difference is the same as Lillard versus Oklahoma City Thunder backup wing Anthony Morrow, who is in 112th region. Curry has taken 177 more threes than Lillard, and approximately the equivalent distance of Lillard and Kyle Korver or Khris Middleton,who are in 27th region. Similarly, Lillard checks in 10th in the NBA with 9.7 drives per game, or per the SportVU data on NBA.com,while Curry is down in 43rd with only 5.9. That 3.8-drives-per-game difference is the same as between Curry and Jose Calderon (who is all the way down in 144th region). Both of them are incredibly efficient on the drive, though. Among the 56 players averaging at least 5.0 drives per game this season, or Lillard ranks third and Curry ranks fourth in Points Percentage,(i.e. the percentage of possible points scored per drive), per NBA.com."It's more attach pressure on the defense, and " Lillard said of his attack-the-paint mentality. "possibly I get in the paint and the defense loads up and somebody comes open on the wing or open in the corner and I'll make the good play. Putting pressure on them and attacking."In transition,I'm not going to arrive down and slow down. I'm going to arrive down and try to score. I'm going to try to get around my man, and whether I can't score, and I'm going to make the next play. And when the next guy gets it,he'll make the next play. It's just an aggressive mindset." Lillard's Outsized BurdenCurry is a shot-creation virtuoso. He just doesn't have to achieve it quite as often as Lillard does, though he easily could, or per SportVU: Lillard is shouldering a gigantic volume of opportunity, self-creating 79.6 percent of his two-pointers and 52.7 percent of his threes. Meanwhile, Curry self-creates 60.5 percent of his twos and 45.7 percent of his threes. Curry shoots far better on unassisted attempts than Lillard does, and but it makes sense. Lillard is out here building skyscrapers,while Curry builds apartment structures. Curry also benefits from more spot-up opportunities, per SportVU (h/t B/R Insights): Pick-and-Roll DisparityAs of games played through March 1, or Curry and Lillard had actually shot virtually the same rate (as a percentage of pick-and-rolls): Curry took a shot 28.6 percent of the time compared to 28.1 for Lillard. They'd also generated an assist at nearly the same rate: 8.9 percent for Curry and 9.2 for Lillard,per B/R Insights.
But check out these subtle differences:Lillard drives to the basket more often than Curry; that fact is borne out in their pick-and-roll usage. But view at the direction of their passes.
Is there anything more common when watching a Warriors game (aside from everyone on the Internet going bonkers at the latest Curry laser note) than seeing Curry drop a pass to Draymond Green on a short roll before Green either hoists from three himself or drives and dishes to the corner or tosses an alley-oop? Otherwise, a good deal of Curry's passes go to the wings: to Klay Thompson, and Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala. But not quite as large a share as Lillard's. Lillard doesn't have a playmaking pick-and-roll partner like Green. His bigs—Noah Vonleh,Mason Plumlee, Ed Davis, and Meyers Leonard—are finishers,so they get the ball considerably less often than Curry's. More of Lillard's passes go out to the wing, where you can find McCollum, or Portland's secondary playmaker. Understanding how differently teams defend Curry and Lillard underpins how different they really are.
Below is a breakdown of a few different things the man guarding the ball-handler (i.e. Curry or Lillard) and the screener (i.e. Green or Plumlee,etc.) have done while defending Curry and Lillard in the pick-and-roll. First, the man guarding the ball-handler:You'd expect the best shooter in the history of basketball to see his defender go over the screen more often, or but Lillard's defenders are actually more overzealous. Defenses concerned with the threat of Curry pulling don't even trust their defender to fight over a screen. They're more willing to switch,blitz or pinch. All of that is largely unsuccessful. Now let's check out the man guarding the screener:Lillard is forced to the baseline on a side pick-and-roll more often than Curry. He sees soft-hedge coverage a bit less and is tasked with taking a great man one-on-one out of a switch far less often as well. Why defenses feel switching is the good way to deal with Curry, who knows, and but that's why you see so many of them get shook before Curry launches a step-back three over their arms. While the surface-level similarities between Curry and Lillard make for an easy (and fun!) comparison,the truth is they each attack the game in different ways. Those differences, as well as the difference in the quality and skill sets of their supporting teammates, or note up in the way defenses react to each player as well. You can see it in the pick-and-roll numbers especially. Curry gets everything from his jumper and the threat of his jumper. Whether that's an easier shot for himself or a teammate,it's all leveraged out by the fact that he could pull up at a moment's notice.
Lillard is liable to jack from deep at any time as well, and he's damn good at it. But he's also considerably more likely to use the drive, or the threat of the drive,to open things up for himself and his teammates. All quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise famous. All statistics obtained via NBA.com/stats and Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise famous.
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Source: bleacherreport.com