Trail Blazers

Lillard has informed Coach Stotts that he will pull-up from half court this season

/ by Jamie Hudson
Trail Blazers

Jamie Hudson

NBC Sports

Who doesn't love Logo Lillard!?

Trail Blazers five-time All-Star Damian Lillard has continued to extend his range and now he says with how comfortable he feels from shooting right at half-court, we could expect some extra deep Lillard threes this season.

“It’s very possible,” Lillard said with a confident smile Tuesday when asked if he would be shooting from half-court this year.

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And not to worry, Lillrd has informed his head coach Terry Stotts.

I told him that I’m going to do it… Terry – he sees me in here every day. I work on my game. I address the things that I feel like I could do better, but the things that I do well -- I just keep getting better at it, I spend time doing and I try to expand on that.

Damian Lillard

Lillard has expanded his range, that's for sure. 

He added that we shouldn’t expect him firing up a half-court shot every game or even “every 20 games.”

The 30-year-old point guard said it might just be once or twice this season that he pulls up from 47 feet, but he added, “I do it for the challenge and the fun as well.”    

 

This is not new and has evolved over the past year. Lillard has been talking about shooting from the half-court line since the pandemic started and the NBA season was put on pause.

“I can pull up from half-court comfortably,” Lillard told TNT’s Ernie Johnson back in April.

And he did just that. 

Lillard drained a near half-court shot against the Brooklyn Nets to help the Blazers secure the win in Portland’s eighth and final seeding game. 

"The game in the bubble against Brooklyn, it was like – we was down seven, I think under seven minutes, I couldn’t get a shot off. They was double teaming me at half-court… We went from being hot to being cold… I’m not going to say that it was the best shot, but it was a shot that I could get off and it happened to be a shot that I spend time shooting.”

I made it and I was comfortable shooting it.

Damian Lillard

From the sounds of it, the half-court shot is now officially part of Lillard’s arsenal.

The Trail Blazers floor captain said it will depend on the feel of the game and if he has the hot hand from deep, and if he does, a half-court shot is not out of the question.

With Trail Blazers practice footage of Lillard’s comfortable half-court shots, we can all see how he is able to shoot them with such ease.

But one thing, Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts along with Lillard’s teammate CJ McCollum, they want to make sure Lillard knows he needs to – MAKE THE HALF-COURT SHOT.

I told him -- he do that s****, he better make it. He’s got the range. He’s been close. He’s smart enough to know when to do something like that and when not to.

CJ McCollum said with a smile

Coach Stotts added that he won’t ever tell Lillard not to shoot half-court shots, as he said that he thinks Lillard “would make that decision on his own.”

I know it’s coming. I just hope he makes it. Or maybe if he misses, he won’t shoot them anymore.

Terry Stotts

See, Coach Stotts is all of Rip City.

Lillard’s deep range just keeps on getting deeper and now with the blessing from Coach Stotts, Logo Lillard won’t just be from 30 feet, it’ll be 30 plus or perhaps 47 feet will become Lillard’s new normal.