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talented players whose positions were covered at the time by established Blazers talents Clyde Drexler and Brandon Roy. Undaunted, Portland���s GM says he entered the 2012 Draft only looking for a point guard with his ���rst pick and Lillard as its only target. (As for Lillard, he knew Portland wanted him - his Draft night suit included black pants and a red pocket square to match the team���s color scheme.) Damian reportedly missed just two shots in his entire pre-draft workout in Portland, a performance that isn���t hard to believe given the shooting displayed in his four-part ���License to Lillard��� YouTube series that has more than 400,000 total views ��� including one from Nuggets guard Ty Lawson. ���I looked at his YouTube and thought we had a big shot,��� says Lawson when asked about the series. ���When he got to the league he showed everybody.��� From that workout and Lillard���s dinner and interview with owner Paul Allen, the Blazers��� front of���ce came away enamored as much by his on-ball skill as the way he carried himself. Like any talent evaluator, Olshey covets ���translatable��� skills. ���I think he���s a wonderful player,��� Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, himself famous for his no-frills presentation, told the assembled media after that December loss to Portland. ���His skills are obvious, but I like his demeanor as much as I like his skills.��� ���I think it���s just my personality, it just carries over to the way I play,��� says Lillard, explaining why he doesn���t often talk to opponents ��� smack or otherwise ��� when he plays. ���I���ve had times where guys have pushed me to that point but that���s not me at all.��� The value of such an approach is plain as day in an NBA season���s typical ebbs and ���ows. What is remarkable for the rookie is just that there have been more exultant moments like his game-winning, 26-foot three-pointer to beat the Hornets just three days after stunning the Spurs, than there have been stumbles, such as 4-of-17 and 6-of-21 shooting nights against the Lakers and Wizards. Take, too, his three-pointer in Madison Square Garden on New Year���s Day with a minute left in the fourth quarter. Isolated and dribbling slowly toward the top of the arc, he stepped back behind it to hit a cold-blooded triple to put Portland up six, ruining Amar���e Stoudemire���s season debut and Carmelo Anthony���s 45-point game. ���It wasn���t always like it is now. I just have to remember the position I came from and not to let it go to my head,��� says Lillard. ���The second it doesn���t go so well I���ll be right back to the way it was before.��� By this he means, the player who���s been doubted for playing on the other AAU team, the three high schools, the unseen college. For the record, he has no such It wasn���t always like it is now. I just have to remember the position I came from and not to let it go to my head. The second it doesn���t go so well I���ll be right back to the way it was before.��� is 60th in assist percentage. That���s better than the rookie seasons of Westbrook, Rose and Deron Williams. And yet, only four ahead of him committed fewer turnovers per 100 possessions. Offensive concepts don���t change much from each level, but he readily admits it took time getting used to being guarded ���by 6-4 guys with 6-10 wingspans.��� One of his drawbacks from Weber State has also stayed true in the pros: Lillard was only fair at scoring at the rim in college. His bottom-10 ranking among guards in shooting percentage there this season continues the trend. Even with this fault, he gets a pass because his top-10 ranking in attempts at the rim means he���s beaten his defender to simply get there, which creates opportunities to either pass or draw a foul. He isn���t perfect but rarely beats himself by forcing a pass or taking illadvised shots. His self-con���dence is not also a blinder; he knows when to defer to Aldridge, Nicolas Batum or Wesley Matthews. Discovering the right combination of drive or pass and push pace or hold is the nuance every player takes time to master. Again, Lillard is just at an accelerated rate in his learning curve. When he sits, the Blazers score 13.1 fewer points per 100 possessions than when he plays. He is less consistent defensively at keeping opponents in front of him, but he isn���t an anchor weighing down the defense, either: Portland allows just 2.4 more points per 100 possessions when he plays. ���He���s a terri���c player,��� says Lakers guard Steve Nash before a late-December matchup with Lillard. ���He looks like the Rookie of the Year. He���s going to have a great career.��� ���Right now I���m playing well so far so people might have forgotten about them not thinking I���d be able to play as well at this level,��� says Lillard. ���Then it���ll be like, ���That was just his rookie year.��� There���s always something.��� He isn���t some machine, though. He���s yawning as a three-hour photoshoot comes to an end, with spurts of pent-up energy coming out in a few impromptu bars of a song. What���s he going to do now? He says he might hang out with his mom and teenaged sister, who live with him now in the area, or maybe relax with his best friend from Oakland who goes to college just up the road. Either way, he���d like to be on his way but is too nice to come out and say it. Finally getting the chance to leave, he pulls away from Trail Blazers HQ in a sports car whose obvious power is out of place on this quiet, wooded road. Three turns later and he���s crossed over to the interstate. Surrounded by rush-hour chaos, he���s in a familiar position: calm, in control and headed for the city���s bright lights. �������������������������������� short leash with his new franchise. Back at Lillard���s mid-December photoshoot Olshey, wearing a black jumpsuit and an ear-to-ear smile, can see what���s happening from his of���ce adjacent to the practice court but pops his head around the corner of its entrance anyway. ���What���s up, cover boy!��� he shouts toward Lillard, who hops over to hug his GM. Olshey, who was a Clippers executive for Blake Grif���n���s rookie ascension, recedes from the court to share a telling story about one interview for Portland���s head coaching job after Lillard���s selection: ���We interviewed a guy at one point, and were talking about utilizing Idaho (of the D-League) and someone said, ���Well, if you send this guy, this guy, this guy and Damian ������ And I just laughed and said, ���Yeah, Damian won���t be spending any time in Idaho.��� ���We all on draft day kind of walked away knowing probably six months before everybody else would learn, what we kind of hoped and knew back in June was that he���s a franchise-caliber point guard.��� If there is a concern with Lillard, it clearly is not with his jumper or reading of defenses. According to DraftExpress, Damian was the best guard in his draft class at points per possession on pick and rolls and in isolation when he used a screen. Nor should it be with his distribution. Out of every rookie guard since 1947 averaging 15 minutes per game, Lillard 41