This year's Damian Lillard: CJ McCollum

During last year's draft there was a shitload of debate about Lillard. The guy's stats increased every year, and he was awesome at the combine. But still people questioned him because of the conference he was in. They also questioned him because they said he scored at will and did not get his teammates involved.

He has turned into a great selection and the current frontrunner for ROY (I think this statement is currently accurate, but will drastically change once Davis stays on the court for any length of time).

Anyway, I think this year's "Lillard" could be CJ McCollum.

He is at a small school (Lehigh) and is currently dominating competition.

Lillard: 6'2" 185 his last year in college.
McCollum: 6;3" 190

Here are his stats this year so far:

McCollum...................Lillard
31.9 Minutes PG............34.5
24.9 PPG...................24.5
.509 FG%...................46.7
.519 3FG%..................40.9
5.4 RPG....................4.0
3.1 APG....................5.0
1.5 SPG....................1.5
82.8 FT%...................88.7

Obviously, that is a comparison to Lillard's entire Senior season compared to McCollum's so far.

Those stats have gone up virtually every year. And yes, his 3point FG percentage is higher than his regular. That's on 52 3 point shots this season.

He is a 4 year player like Lillard, so he will come into the league with much more maturity than the one and done guys. He will be a year older as a rookie than Austin Rivers will be in his second year in the league.

And unlike Lillard, he HAS played against top competition...in last year's NCAA tournament where his team played Austin Rivers' Duke team...and won. He drastically outplayed Rivers in that game.

He is moving up the boards and NBADraft.net currently has him in their top 10.

He is definitely a guy to keep an eye out for if we are in the lottery.

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