{"id":76028,"date":"2024-05-03T09:40:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=76028"},"modified":"2024-05-03T09:40:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:40:13","slug":"bucks-damian-lillard-reveals-thoughts-returning-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/03\/bucks-damian-lillard-reveals-thoughts-returning-next-season\/","title":{"rendered":"All-Star Reveals Thoughts on Returning to Bucks Next Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite a disappointingly brief playoff run, Milwaukee Bucks star guard Damian Lillard is \u201cextremely excited<\/a>\u201d to return for another season (h\/t The Athletic\u2019s Eric Nehm).<\/p>\n

These comments may come as a shock to many. Over the past few months, Lillard\u2019s happiness playing in Milwaukee or for the Bucks has come into question. To be fair, Lillard incited that debate himself when he revealed that he hasn\u2019t been having much fun this season in an exclusive interview<\/a> with SI\u2019s Chris Mannix.<\/p>\n

In April, he claimed his only intention<\/a> was to shed light on how being away from his family impacts his emotional wellbeing. However, in the interview with Mannix, he made it clear that he was strained on the court as well.<\/p>\n

Damian Lillard Reveals Thoughts on Returning to Bucks Next Season<\/h2>\n

After the Bucks were eliminated by the upstart Indiana Pacers in the First Round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, Lillard went back to his original message. The one that he put out in his interview with Mannix. The very comments he characterized as untrue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been some hard times,\u201d Lillard says. \u201cI haven\u2019t denied that one time this year. Basketball and personally, it\u2019s been some hard times, but it\u2019s never been an issue with Milwaukee.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disconnect between Lillard and those interpreting his comments is that he believes his on-court frustrations have nothing to do with Milwaukee. Yet, Lillard was stressed by basketball and he plays basketball in Milwaukee. It only follows that people would perceive his comments to be related to the Bucks.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, for Lillard to have no off-court activities in Milwaukee despite multiple teammates that have been there for years suggests that he wasn\u2019t thrilled about the city. As previously mentioned, it\u2019s hard to imagine Lillard going straight from the arena to home and back every day if his wish to be traded to the Miami Heat was granted.<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s no doubt that he enjoys playing for a championship contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get the opportunity to play with Giannis (Antetokounmpo)<\/a>,\u201d Lillard says. \u201cI\u2019m playing with veteran players,\u201d he continues, alluding to the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 decision to rebuild.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the only thing we playing for is an opportunity to win the championship. And that\u2019s why I made the decision to be a part of something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to this year, Lillard\u2019s last playoff experience was in 2021. He\u2019s only made it past the First Round in three of his nine playoff appearances.<\/p>\n

Putting It All Into Perspective<\/h3>\n

\u201c\u2026Now that the season has come to an end, I\u2019m looking at it and I\u2019m excited\u2026,\u201d Lillard reiterates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was almost 25 points a game, seven assists, we almost won 50 games given everything else and people just, you know, had a whole lot to say.<\/p>\n

And when I look at my performance, I know that I could have done a lot of things better. And I know that I\u2019m going to have a full season of knowing the coach I\u2019m going to be playing for, having a better idea of the guys that I\u2019m going to be playing with. Being in Milwaukee, I\u2019ve kind of settled into things here.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite Lillard producing at a high level, he was inefficient for the bulk of the season. Even by midseason, when his conditioning should have improved to the point where he wasn\u2019t even thinking about his reluctance to train in the offseason, he was still having trouble keeping shots in the rim.<\/p>\n

Consider that there were three months that Lillard shot under 40 percent from the field: October, January, and April.<\/p>\n

There were three months in which Lillard shot under 34 percent from 3: November, January, and April.<\/p>\n

There was only one month that Lillard shot at least 44 percent from the field: December.<\/p>\n

Because Doc Rivers was hired as head coach on Jan. 26, it\u2019s obvious that him replacing Adrian Griffin lent itself to Lillard performing better. Indeed, over the next 15 games, Lillard averaged 23.9 points per game while shooting 41.2 percent from 3. In the previous 15 games, he averaged 23.5 points per game but on 31.7 percent shooting from 3.<\/p>\n

A veteran head coach who came into the job knowing his point guard would be Lillard and not Jrue Holiday<\/a>, Rivers was better prepared to maximize the eight-time All-Star\u2019s scoring ability. To that end, he endeavored to place Lillard in actions he thrived in with the Blazers. Now with a full offseason ahead to grow together, both should be even more comfortable in their roles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite a disappointingly brief playoff run, Milwaukee Bucks star guard Damian Lillard is \u201cextremely excited\u201d to return for another season (h\/t The Athletic\u2019s Eric Nehm). These comments may come as a shock to many. Over the past few months, Lillard\u2019s happiness playing in Milwaukee or for the Bucks has come into question. To be fair, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":76030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1608,62,3],"tags":[187,190],"class_list":["post-76028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bucks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-damian-lillard","tag-doc-rivers"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}