It was one of the big debates of the last year. When Damian Lillard arrived at the Milwaukee Bucks transferred from Portland, many placed the Wisconsinite as the favorite in the ring. However, the All-Star game in particular and the team as a whole never lived up to the expected standards. When asked about this, the leader assured that he is still the same player who attracted the Blazers.
“I am not a player who collapses. I live a clean, good, healthy life, so I can do this. I can do the same censored thing I did two or three years ago. “I can do it now,” he told Jim Owczarski about Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Lillard may be right in his approach, but the numbers don’t add up. After increasing to 32.2 points per night during the 2022-23 campaign, with Milwaukee his production dropped to 24.3. Additionally, his shooting percentages also suffered a drastic drop to 42.4 percent on field goals and 35.4 percent on three-pointers.
“I think when the trade happened, everybody was like, well, Milwaukee is going to win, and I think when they saw that things weren’t going the way they wanted to see or the way they thought, and I didn’t either. it’s like I looked at Portland, they said… ‘oh, what happened to Dame Why didn’t Dame do this but the truth is that for most of the season I averaged 26 points You really think about it, what level is they hold me when I get 26 points, with an average of seven assists and I don’t feel very good,” he explained.
Another issue that slowed Lillard’s start as a Bucks player was injuries. During his time with the team, he suffered from ankle, groin, adductor and Achilles tendon problems; something that came with a big change in life when starting a new city. “There’s a lot of change, a lot of tension, you know? “I think now I have a chance to get my act together and start moving towards next season,” he concluded.