Where Does Damian Lillard Rank Among the NBA's Top Point Guards?

Our friends at SonicsRising.com are whiling away their off-season hours (my bad, their off-season has lasted 6 years now) by ranking players at various positions. Earlier this week they named LaMarcus Aldridge the best power forward in the NBA. Wesley Matthews finished 6th among starting shooting guards. Robin Lopez got dubbed the 19th-best center, sandwiched between Anderson Varejao and Roy Hibbert. Nicolas Batum finished 6th among small forwards. Heck, they even ranked Portland's bench crew 6th-best in the league. (This may indicate that copious amounts of drinking and other legalized substances in Washington were involved in the making of these lists.)

But all that's done now. Today we get to the marquee position in the NBA: point guard.

As has been their wont, the SonicsRising crew were kind to the Blazers, setting Damian Lillard in the 3rd position, nestled among the league elite. Cleveland's Kyrie Irving defines the lower reaches of the category. Russell Westbrook and John Wall trail Lillard in the 5th and 4th positions respectively. Above Lillard are Stephen Curry and the unanimous #1 selection, Chris Paul.

Are the estimates for Portland optimistic overall? Perhaps. You could certainly argue for other players in Aldridge's or Lillard's slots and that bench ranking is puzzling. If nothing else, though, this highlights the buzz the Blazers have created around the league. Having left "The Shot", a sense of teamwork, and a little surprise in people's minds last spring, Portland has become one of the darlings of fall projections. It's an odd, but nice, feeling.

--Dave blazersub@gmail.com / @DaveDeckard / @Blazersedge