Damian Lillard Has A Great Shot Tonight To Strengthen His Case As The Greatest Blazer Of All Time

Kevork Djansezian. Getty Images.

When you hear the name Damian Lillard, what comes to mind?

Top 75 player? Elite point guard? Legit rapper? Loyal guy?

All of those things would be true. But we probably should keep going. If Dame scores 21 points tonight he'll achieve something pretty significant for the Blazers as a franchise

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not only will he become their all time leading scorer, he'll also continue his ever building case that he's the greatest Blazer of all time. Given how the league works in today's NBA, I don't think it's crazy to suggest Dame's record might never be broken. Not becasue the Blazers won't have a guy talented enough, but guys don't usually hang around a franchise like the Blazers for 10+ years, especially in this era of player empowerment and player movement. 

What makes Dame stand out isn't just his insane basketball talent

but also how he'd rather die than play for another franchise. I have nothing respect for that. If he never wins a ring, who cares. Not Dame. You hear him talk year after year after year about how there's more to him than just ring chasing. He wants to win as a Blazer and if it never happens then so be it.

So, is Dame the greatest Blazer of all time? 

Let's first explore where he ranks in a few different areas

Games Played - 4th (729), leader is Clyde Drexler at 867

Barring something crazy, I expect Dame to play 139 more games in his Blazers career, so he'll probably own this one

Minutes Played - 2nd (26,455), leader is Clyde Drexler at 29,496

Same thing here applies. Dame usually averages around 2,300-2,600+ minutes a year

FGM - 2nd (5,887) leader is Clyde Drexler at 6,889

Dame Time, ever heard of it? If there's one thing Dame does, it's get buckets. As long as Dame is on the floor, he's good for around 600 FGM a year at a minimum. He's at 152 so far, so this will probably happen next year

3PM - 1st (2,223)

Nobody is touching this one. Next closest is CJ McCollum who was also in POR for a long ass time and he only made 1,297.

FTM - 1st (4,043)

Next closest is Clyde with 3,798 so this one feels pretty safe too

Assists - 3rd (4,853), next is Clyde at 4,933 and the leader is Terry Porter at 5,319

Usually a lock for around 500 assists a year, we'll most likely see Dame top this one next season as well. At the moment, he has 127 in 18 games

So those are some of the raw numbers. I think for most people, they consider either Clyde Drexler or Bill Walton (but mostly Clyde) as the greatest Blazers ever. With Walton, he's responsible for the only Blazers title they've ever won back in 1976-77, and he was as dominant as it gets back then before injuries robbed him. 

If you remember, Clyde didn't win a ring until he got traded to the Rockets, so he's much more of a comp to someone like Dame unless you think the Blazers legit have a title in their future.

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For me, if we're all on the same page that right now that the best Blazer ever is Clyde Drexler, and Dame is about to pass Clyde in all the Blazers franchise records, I feel like it isn't totally crazy to suggest that Dame is about to become the greatest Blazer of all time. I know the olds that might be reading this may not want to agree because Clyde The Glide was one of the best scorers of his generation, but so is Dame. Both guys are on the Top 75 All time team. Clyde had 10x All Stars and 5x All NBAs and Dame is currently working with 6x All Star and 6x All NBA. My guess is he's going to add a few to both of those before he hangs it up.

I will say it's a bit of a bummer that this is probably going to happen on the road since the Blazers are in OKC tonight and aren't in their own building until the 26th. Something tells me Dame is going to score 21 points in 3 games, but you can bet your ass that first game back against the Hornets is going to be a special moment. 

Not only is Dame arguably the most loyal Blazer ever, he also just happens to be the best player they'd ever had.