Let me just get this out the way, I think we’re all in agreement that Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, and T-Mac got snubbed. I think there’s no question they are top 75 worthy. I also think Tony Parker and Pau Gasol should be in there too. If you’re the NBA, you can’t dismiss the greats of the 50’s and 60’s, so it’s not surprising that a lot of the modern players of the last 15 years got snubbed out. But we’re here to talk about Damian Lillard, who a lot of people think he’s not worthy to be on this list, especially over players like Dwight, Carter, and McGrady. Now I’m not arguing that he’s better or greater than them. The argument that I’ll be making is that numbers indicate that we’re overlooking some of his accomplishments, and he does indeed have a strong case to be in the top 75.
Let’s start with seeing where he currently ranks in some of the advanced metrics, compared to other NBA greats. He currently ranks 7th all-time in offensive box plus/minus, 15th in career points per game, 26th in offensive rating and box plus/minus, 32nd in PER, 42nd in offensive win shares, and 44th in VORP.
For his offensive win shares, he’s already higher than players like Dwyane Wade, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Carmelo Anthony. For his VORP rating, he’s already higher than players like Moses Malone, Isiah Thomas, and Dwight Howard. Damian Lillard is only 31 years old, so he obviously hasn’t racked up high career numbers like the other greats who have retired or the players who are in the twilight of their careers. But those numbers show us the immense value that he has on his team, and it is indeed comparable to the all-time greats who are first ballot hall of famers. And his prime is just as good as many of the players who made the list.
Take for instance the number of times he’s been selected to be in the All-NBA. He has 6 appearances. One 1st team and four 2nd team. That’s more than players like Clyde Drexler, Isiah Thomas, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, James Worthy, Reggie Miller, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Nate Tiny Archibald, and Earl Monroe. All players who made the list. He also has the same number of All-NBA’s as Walt Frazier, Elvin Hayes, and Carmelo Anthony. Now let’s dive deeper into Carmelo Anthony real quick. Now I would like to compare.. not the totality of their careers, but the primes of Damian Lillard and Carmelo Anthony. Since they are very similar in the sense that they’re both one of the greatest scorers of all-time.
They both have been selected to one all-NBA first team, but Carmelo has only been selected to the 2nd team twice. Now let’s looks at the MVP shares for both players. There was one year where Carmelo Anthony was voted 3rd in the MVP voting, and the highest Damian Lillard ever got was 4th. However take a look at this next stat. There was only one other season where Carmelo was voted in the top 10 for the MVP. Damian Lillard was voted in the top 10 in four other seasons. So that’s a good indicator of how many times Carmelo was considered to be a top 10 player in the league, compared to Damian Lillard. Now let’s look at their playoff success. Damian Lillard was able to make the conference finals once, so has Carmelo. Now Lillard was able to get past the 1st round two other times in his career, but Carmelo Anthony was able to get past the 1st round one other time. As far as their team success, Damian Lillard was able to help his teams to three 50 win seasons, and Carmelo was able to help his teams to four 50 win seasons. So if we’re being honest here, how much better was Carmelo Anthony in his prime compared to Damian Lillard? They’re very similar. And you could probably give the edge to Damian. Especially if we look at their scoring ability.
Now Carmelo Anthony was able to lead the league in scoring in the 2012-13 season, and the most he’s ever averaged for a season was in 2007 when he averaged 28.9 ppg. Damian Lillard was able to top that in 2020, when he averaged 30 ppg. But he’s never led the league in scoring. Now what he lacks in scoring titles, he’s made up for in his insane ability to produce high scoring games. He currently has twelve 50 point games. That is tied for 7th all-time with LeBron James. He has more 50 point games than Iverson, Kareem, Curry, Kevin Durant, Jerry West, Larry Bird, Dominique Wilkins, and of course Carmelo Anthony. All players who were among the NBA 75th team. He also has a total of three 60 point games. The number of players that has multiple 60 point games in their career are Wilt Chamberlain, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, James Harden, and Elgin Baylor. That’s pretty good company right there. Now another interesting stat is that Damian Lillard is the only player, along with Wilt Chamberlain, to score at least 60 points three different times in the same season. And if you’re wondering if he’s ever scored that much in the playoffs… he has. He currently has two 50 point games in the playoffs. He’s only among 7 players to have multiple 50 point games in the postseason. We’re talking about one of the greatest scorers in NBA history, and there’s absolutely no debate about that. He’s the Allen Iverson of our era, except with a three-point shot. How could you leave out such an incredible scorer off the list?
There’s one more factor that we want to consider, and that’s the Reggie Miller effect. Let me explain. I believe there is no question that Reggie Miller deserves to be in the NBA 75th team and he even has a case to be in the top 50. I think he’s just outside of the top 50, but if you have him there, I wouldn’t blame you. His career was legendary. He has over 25k points for his career, he led his team to the finals, he nearly beat MJ during one of his MVP seasons in the playoffs, and he currently ranks 3rd al-time in three pointers made, 4th all-time in offensive rating, 9th in offensive win shares, 15th in win shares, and 21st in vorp. He’s an accomplished basketball player. However he’s only been selected to 3 all-NBA’s (all 3rd teams), he’s never finished in the top 10 in MVP shares, and he’s only finished once in the top 10 in points per game. So his peak was rather pedestrian, and it’s what many people use against him to snub him out of the top 75. But his clutch playoff performances can be described as legendary. We think so highly of him because of all the clutch moments that he’s given us throughout his career. The 8 points in 8.9 seconds. The 25 points in the 4th quarter against the Knicks when he was going back and forth with Spike Lee. His game winner against the Bulls in 1998. His game-winner against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2000, or against the Sixers in 2001, or against the New Jersey Nets in 2003. He’s come through so many different times. But what about Damian Lillard?
How about his two buzzer beating shots to end the series against the Rockets and the OKC Thunder. There’s been nine series in NBA history that have ended with a buzzer beater. Only Damian Lillard and Michael Jordan have done it twice. He knocked out the heavily favored James Harden and Dwight Howard of the Rockets from the first round in 2014, and he ended the Russell Westbrook era of the OKC Thunder two years ago. That half-court step-back three pointer is one of the most legendary game winners ever. If we think so highly of players like Reggie Miller for their clutch performances in the playoffs, why don’t we do the same for Damian Lillard? In my opinion, he’s done enough to make this list.
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