Dame D.O.L.L.A for MVP

Image courtesy of Football 24 News

    I would just like to start this off by saying something that I think probably needs to be said: I am certainly a little biased when it comes to talking about Damian Lillard because, to be honest, he is not only my favorite basketball player, but I can confidently say he is my favorite athlete of all time. I know, it is a bold statement. But there is just so much to like about the guy. My next blog post might have to be just me talking about all of the great reasons to like Dame. Enough with me being a fanboy. Lets talk about why he deserves to have more involvement in this season's MVP race, and why he might low key be a front runner, in my humble opinion of course. Oh, and if you are not aware, Damian is also a rapper and his rapping name is Dame D.O.L.L.A (D.O.L.L.A stands for different on levels the Lord allows. This will be something to go into more detail about in my next blog post).

Now, let's talk about why Dame deserves to be this season's NBA MVP. At 30 years old, Lillard has never won the MVP but has certainly had multiple MVP caliber seasons. This season definitely is no exception: as of right now, he is averaging 30.1 points per game and 7.7 assists per game while shooting 45 percent from the field, 37.8 percent from three, and 94.1 percent from the free throw line. On top of this exceptional stat line, the Blazers are sitting at 25-18 in the West, which puts them at the 6 seed. But the West is close, as it usually is, and they could easily move up or down a little as the season goes on. But if we are being honest here, the Blazers would be a lottery team if it was not for Dame. All you need to do is watch their games to know that he pretty much carries them. I do not want to take away from his supporting cast though. CJ McCollum has been an all star level player and formed quite the lethel duo with Lillard. There are a number of really solid role players around him as well, including future hall of famer Carmelo Anthony, Gary Trent Jr., Jusuf Nurkic, Enes Kanter, Robert Covington, Derrick Jones Jr., etc. I personally really like their team, but especially this year with the group of players around Dame.

Image courtesy of The Comeback. Lillard pulls up and hits shots from this deep on almost a regular basis, which is pretty scary. This is why he has been dubbed the nickname "Logo Lillard."

Lillard's ability to shoot the deep, and I mean DEEP ball is unmatched besides a guy named Stephen Curry (Damian is actually better from way deep than Curry statistically). The way that Lillard will pull up from barely within half court and nail shots on a pretty consistent basis is outstanding and something the league truly has never seen before. It also just totally changes the way he needs to be guarded. He literally needs to be picked up the moment he cross half court. If you give him an inch of space from anywhere he certainly is not afraid to chuck it, and he will make it pretty dang often, too. Dame also catches fire so often that he is easily one of the most feared players in the league, on top of being one of, if not the best closers the game has seen. On any given night it is no surprise to see him drop 50 plus, have a crazy game winner at the buzzer, or sometimes both.

With everything considered and with injuries to two of the top MVP candidates (Joel Embiid and LeBron James), I think that Dame sneakily has a very good case to be this season's Most Valuable Player. The way he wills his team to victory and controls games is really rare, and I think he deserves to win this award at least just as much as anyone else in the league right now.