Nobody is moving up the draft board like Damian Lillard.
You didn’t see him unless you were a Weber State fan (and we know you’re not), but most teams now have him ranked as the best point guard in the draft — better than UNC’s Kendall Marshall, better than Kentucky’s Marquis Teague, better than all the bigger names.
And according to DraftExpress he has really impressed people during the interview portion of the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago this week (and the interviews are by far the thing that matters most there). Which means he is going up the boards, not down.
Lillard was a scoring guard in college because he had to be, and he will look to shoot first in the NBA. He is a dynamic penetrator who has good lateral movement, but if you back off him he will knock down the jumper with range. This is a guy who shot 46.7 percent overall and 40.9 percent from three when everybody in the building knew he was going to take every shot — teams schemed for him and he still killed them. He only turned the ball over once every 8.9 possessions.
DraftExpress says he could have a George Hill like impact.
The concern was Weber State — he played in the Big Sky against inferior competition. Which is why his individual workouts and interviews matter more for him. He has to answer those questions.
And multiple reports have him impressing in the gym and in the interview room. Here is what ESPN’s Chad Ford wrote:
Lillard is going in the lottery, the only question is how high.
DraftExpress right now has him going No. 10 to the Hornets. (That would be a quality young team suddenly — Anthony Davis in the middle, Eric Gordon at the two and Lillard at the point. You could build around that.) But he may go higher. Toronto at No. 8?
Bottom line from everyone is this — forget about where Lillard played, just know that he flat out can play.