The Whiteboard: Damian Lillard is far from finished

It takes a special kind of player to be called "washed" while averaging 24 points and 7 assists per game, but that's the label Damian Lillard was tagged with last season, his first with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Maybe "washed" was needlessly harsh, but it's true that in his first non-Blazers season, Lillard was all over the productivity map. Seemingly every time he exploded for a classic Dame scoring barrage, he followed up with a few clunkers in a row.

When he was on, he still looked like the Damian Lillard we were accustomed to, and the one Milwaukee expected it would be getting in the blockbuster trade with Phoenix and Portland, which eventually sent Jrue Holiday to Boston (oops).

But Dame wasn't on in 2023-24 as much as Bucks fans hoped he would be. This season, those inconsistencies have evaporated. Damian Lillard is producing the best basketball we've seen from him in years, and he might be saving the Bucks season in the process.

Damian Lillard is bouncing back after a down (for his standards) season

Averaging 25.8 points (second-most among East point guards) 7.6 assists (his most since 2019-20 and second-most ever) and posting a 62.6 true shooting clip, Lillard's counting stats have jumped back up after dropping a bit last season.

His advanced stats are far better than last season's, too; his offensive Estimated Plus/Minus is eighth-best in the NBA, right above Jayson Tatum and Devin Booker, and right below his Bucks teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo. His defensive impact is still... subpar, but his offensive metrics do more than enough to outweigh that.

Damian Lillard is not the same player he was on the Blazers. That's a good thing. These Bucks would have no chance at a deep playoff run if the offense centered a 34 year-old point guard. Instead, Doc Rivers has implemented a system where both of his stars thrive on offense, with Giannis being the clear first option — he's leading the league in scoring, after all.

Recently, the Dame and Giannis combination has felt more collaborative than it did last season. That might have something to do with Damian Lillard passing the ball far more than he did last season. Yes, the assist numbers are up, but the actual pass numbers are up even more. Lillard passed the ball 52 times per game last season. This year, he's up to 62 passes a game, an 18% increase. That's sizable. His potential assists are up as well, from 11.9 to 13.3.

Damian Lillard had never played with someone like Giannis Antetokounmpo prior to last season, so maybe there was hesitancy on Dame's part to truly believe he was accompanied by a player of Giannis' caliber.

I don't want to make it seem like last year was a disaster for this team — Giannis actually had one of his best seasons ever. But the on-court connection between Milwaukee's star players is noticeably more consistent this season than last, and should that continue, it will only yield positive results.

Milwaukee is 8-2 in its last 10 games, No. 2 in offensive rating during that stretch and now in the semifinals of the NBA Cup after beating Orlando on Tuesday. An abysmal start has been long forgotten as the Bucks offense has kicked into high gear, with a more consistently productive Damian Lillard being a catalyst for the upswing.

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NBA news roundup

• LeBron James will likely miss Friday's game versus Minnesota as he nurses a sore foot, according to ESPN.
• Steve Kerr accidentally just gave everyone a meme to use for years.
• Heat trade rumors are flying, all the while... the team is actually playing really well. No. 4 in Net Rating over their last 10 games. Huh.

Atlanta might have something brewing

If Trae Young could play in Madison Square Garden every game, he might be the greatest point guard we've ever seen. He can't do that, unfortunately, but he's still a really, really good point guard — and the Atlanta Hawks are turning into a pretty good team because of it.

Atlanta walked out of MSG with a win over the New York Knicks in the NBA Cup (you can't make me say the advertisement) quarterfinals on Wednesday, with Young posting 22 points and 11 assists, which will somehow lower his outrageous average of 12.2 assists per game.

He's on pace for a historic assist season, but Young has always been an elite offensive engine. The difference with this year's Hawks team is evidenced by the guys he's passing the ball to; they're really damn good, and appear to only be getting better.

Jalen Johnson had 21/15/7/2/2 in this game, a hilarious stat line for anyone, but especially a 22 year-old. Dyson Daniels had 9 points but Atlanta wouldn't have won this game without his constant badgering of opposing ball-handlers — he's stunning to watch play defense.

And De'Andre Hunter — AT LONG LAST — has blossomed into the scoring wing Atlanta pretended he was for the last five years. With 24 in the Cup quarters, that makes 7 of 8 games with 20-plus points for Hunter.

This team might still have a first-round playoff ceiling, but the obvious development of Johnson, Hunter, Daniels and rookie Zaccharie Risacher have injected some hope back into The A.