At first glance, Damian Lillard lost half a step last season, which was especially evident statistically with his three-point shooting percentage dropping to 35.4 percent and his true shooting percentage dropping to .590. There are other reasons why the numbers dropped, too: adjusting to playing next to Giannis Antetokounmpo; playing mostly through calf, ankle, groin and Achilles soreness; and on a personal level, he was going through a divorce while having to move to a new city.
Don’t tell Lillard, 34, that his body is starting to fail him. Here’s what Lillard told Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (behind a paywall). (Thanks to Hoop Rumors.)
“I’m not a player who falls apart. I live a clean, good, healthy life, so I can do it. I can do the same thing I did two or three years ago. I can do it now…”
“I think when the trade happened, everybody was like, ‘Well, Milwaukee’s going to win this,’ and I think when things weren’t always going the way they wanted or thought they were going to go, and I wasn’t looking the way I looked in Portland, I was like, ‘Oh, what’s going on with Dame? Why isn’t Dame doing this?’ But for a lot of the season, I was still averaging 26 points. If you really think about it, what standard do you hold me to if I’m scoring 26 points and averaging seven assists and I’m not feeling great? I go through a lot. That’s just the truth.”
No one should question Lillard’s fitness or the attention he pays to his body and his game.
However, there is a long history of small forwards falling off around Lillard’s age, so expecting this to happen isn’t crazy. Playing next to Antetokounmpo was expected to open up the court for him. That didn’t happen consistently last season, there are a number of reasons for that, and it’s something Doc Rivers needs to fix next season.
For next season, my preseason rankings have the Bucks fourth in the East and among the fringe contenders—if all goes well, they can compete with Boston, Philadelphia, and New York for the top spot in the conference, but Milwaukee has no margin for error. That’s partly due to health, starting with Antetokounmpo—who missed all of this year’s playoffs and has played three games in the 2023 playoffs—but also Khris Middleton (who has also struggled with injuries) and Brook Lopez, who at 36 can’t miss much time or show a dip in form.
An aging Damian Lillard is also in that group, the Bucks need him on the court and healthy if they want to win another ring.
