Television personality Skip Bayless apparently believes that Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard is “extremely overhyped and overrated” as a player.
The “Undisputed” regular took to the show Monday morning to share his opinion of Lillard. In the process, Bayless also said that he believes Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook is more valuable than Lillard.
Bayless made his comments prior to the Golden State Warriors sweeping the Trail Blazers Monday night. He pointed to the fact that they held multiple 15-point leads in the series and were unable to emerge with a win.
Bayless criticized Lillard and C.J. McCollum after failing to lead the Trail Blazers to a win at that point of the series. Given their track record in the NBA Playoffs, Bayless also believes Lillard “doesn’t scare anybody.”
It was time for your two All-Star guards to take it over. Take us home in Game 2, literally back to Portland, and win for us at home in Game 3. Both of them shrank and came up smaller than they actually are. I have to put the brunt of the blame on Damian Lillard. He is a really nice guy. He outpoised Russell Westbrook in round one. He outplayed him. He sent him home by waving bye, bye to him with the shot of shots.
I’m here to say that once again, right on schedule, it has been proven to me that Russell Westbrook is still more valuable, overall, than Damian Lillard. I’ll still take him because that rage that he plays with, it scares people. I don’t think Damian scares anybody. When push comes to shove in the playoffs, he turns back into nothing more than a regular-season wonder.
While Bayless believes Westbrook is more valuable, there may not be too many around the league that shares that opinion — at least right now. He was vastly outplayed by Lillard in the first round as the Thunder had no answer for him.
The Thunder certainly had their success against the Trail Blazers during the regular season but when it mattered most, they came up short. Injuries to Westbrook and Paul George didn’t help matters but those two players did not use those issues an excuse.
Westbrook is certainly a fan favorite in Oklahoma City and is still among the top point guards in the league. But saying he is more valuable than a player in Lillard that just advanced to the Western Conference Finals may be questionable by Bayless.
One thing is for sure: Bayless remains the hot take king.
