Damian Lillard opens up about trade to Bucks, ‘cheat code’ fit with Giannis

Dame’s “wow” moment playing with Giannis:

“There’s one play that I think of off the top of my head,” Lillard said. “It was in practice and I come off of a screen and the guy is fronting him. And I’m looking at it like obviously I can get it to him, but the weakside defender is there on the opposite block and I’m like, ‘I don’t want them to get it.’

“And he’s just standing there like (acts out Antetokounmpo pointing to the sky), so I just throw it up. And in his head, he’s thinking like, ‘Nobody’s going to get the ball if you throw it up there. I’m going to get it before anybody else gets it.’ So that was different for me. And I threw it up. He jumped up, caught it, turned and he just two-hand dunked it real quick. And it was like, ‘I’ve never played with nobody that’s capable of that.’

Dame on Khris: And I talked to him, like, ‘Let me know what you need from me, so you’re comfortable or you feel like you’re doing what you need to be doing.’ And he was like, ‘Nah. You be you.’ So I think everybody’s mentality is like that, and once we got on the court together and practiced and we played, I was able to see how it would work pretty easy. Everybody’s making the right play. It’s simple. He’s a shot maker. I’m a shot maker. But because of how teams have to respect what we’re all capable of, it’s just going to make it more simple. So I don’t think it’s something to overthink about.”

Dame about his teammates: “It’s early, but I would say it’s the consistency that I see,” Lillard said. “Typically, everybody’s excited in the beginning, but then you have a couple tough days, you get a little tired and then the mentality changes, like being in the weight room and getting your shots up. Here, I’m impressed about how it’s every day and it’s not loud, it’s not extra; it’s just everybody show up and do it. You always see somebody in the weight room, you see somebody on the table, you see somebody getting their shots up, we practice hard, they’re getting in the cold tub.

by Kevin_Jim