4 years and 216 million US dollars, the NBA's disappointing supergiant, the league has the wrong person, you don't have a championship
This season's NBA regular season has come to an end, compared with the past few years, the overall competition in the East and West this season is fierce, and the West did not determine the top three in the West until the finale, and only then determined the final play-off position, as the defending champion Nuggets, they took the initiative to do the game, and finally squeezed the Timberwolves to third, and faced the biggest nemesis Suns in the first round, bringing the Thunder to the first, but they won the second place safely, and drove the Lakers to a dead end: either you will take the seventh seed, or you will lose one game first, and the winner of the Kings and Warriors will fight to the death. On the eastern side, the Celtics are dominant, from the second-place Knicks to the eighth-place Heat, and the final record is only 4 wins, and the strength is between the middle.
In the past few years, the three big names in the regular season in the East are the Celtics, the Bucks and the 76ers, and the 76ers have been out for a long time this season Embiid has been out for a long time due to a knee injury, and in the end the 76ers can only start from the play-offs. But the Bucks are different, after winning the first place in the East in the regular season last season, they were eliminated by the Heat Black Eight in the first round, and Budenholzer was fired in the offseason, rookie coach Griffin took the position, and at the same time used Holiday + Allen + first-round picks and other chips in exchange for Lillard, in fact, Griffin led the team with a good result, 30-13 and close to 7 percent of the winning rate, but the Bucks fired Griffin again and replaced him with Old Rivers, and after Old Rivers took office, he led the team to 31 games and 16 wins, and the record in the same period was the worst among the top eight in the East and West! Of course, the blame is not all on Rivers Sr., there is also a disappointing supergiant.
After the end of this season's regular season, the American media conducted a poll to select the most disappointing superstar in the regular season this season, and Lillard "led strongly". Last season with the Trail Blazers, Lillard averaged 32.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game, shooting 46.3% + 37.1% from the field, which is not efficient, but at least at a normal level, relying on the gorgeous statistics of 20.7 shots per game. And this season, Lillard averaged only 24.4 points, 4.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists per game, and the two-point shooting rate was as low as 42%+35%, what level is this, a key data to measure the pitcher: effective shooting rate, Lillard's effective shooting rate is only 51%, 261st in the league!
Even if he counts averaging nearly seven free throws per game, Lillard's true shooting percentage is only 59 percent, 132nd in the league. It can completely explain the reason for Lillard's declining efficiency: in the Trail Blazers, he doesn't have to care about defense, and the ball is dominant; For example, in the closing game against the Magic, Lillard scored 16 points on 2-of-14 and 12-of-13 on free throws, for example, he scored 12 points on 5-of-11 against the Celtics, and on 4-of-12 he scored 11 points, and his offensive end was sluggish + the natural loopholes on the defensive end were double damage to the Bucks.
But what is incomprehensible is that Lillard is still praised by the league for this kind of efficiency performance, first of all, the previous 75 superstars, Lillard did not have any hard honors, and the highlight of his career was to lead the team to the Western Conference finals, and then was swept out of the game 4-0 by the Warriors who lacked Durant! Including in the first half of the season, when the Bucks' record was firmly in the top two in the East, Lillard even entered the top six on the MVP list! Including Lillard's "Mr. Key" label, the average of 3.8 points per game at key moments this season seems to be a lot, but the two shooting rates are 41.2%+29.5%, which is the level outside the top 100 in the league!
To be realistic, Lillard's "strength" is more in the game highlights, and it is often a highlight and a slump of several games! It is also because of the double pressure of Lillard and Rivers Sr., which leads to the lack of competitiveness of the Bucks this season. According to the modeling calculations given by the American media "BR", although the Bucks avoided the 76ers and the Heat in the first round of the playoffs, in the face of the Pacers, the Bucks' winning rate was only 49.5%, and it was the only one among the top four teams in the top four of the East and West that had a winning rate of less than 5 percent! The ESPN columnist only used one sentence to explain: The Pacers average 9 points per game and score more than 9 points, and Lillard will be blown up. What's even more desperate is that Lillard's salary this season is $45.64 million, and the next 3 years are: 48.79 million + 58.55 million + 63.23 million, and $216 million in 4 years.
What should the Bucks do? By the summer of this year, Lillard will also be 34 years old, and the decline in athleticism is inevitable, the key annual salary is getting higher and higher, and the Bucks' ceiling is getting lower and lower! Old Rivers will lead the team sooner or later to have a revealing day, and the Bucks can fire Rivers Sr. as soon as this summer, and continue to find an obedient + more capable head coach for Brother Alphabet, but Lillard's value will be lower and lower! He himself has not done a good job in the process of transforming from red flowers to green leaves, and defense is his biggest shortcoming. To put it bluntly, Lillard doesn't have a championship appearance, and the league has the wrong person.