Damian Lillard Didn't Even Get a Second-Place Vote for MVP
After watching him eviscerate the Trail Blazers while lifting his short-handed team to victory in the first round of the playoffs, most of Rip City probably isn't surprised to learn that Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic has been named NBA MVP. Damian Lillard's place in the voting, though, is another story altogether.
Lillard finished seventh in MVP tallying this season, garnering 38 total voting points – four behind Luka Doncic. What pushed Doncic ahead? Not that Lillard, like his Dallas Mavericks counterpart, failed to earn a single first-place vote. There was a wide gulf in the numbers below Chris Paul at fifth.
It's the shocking – well, at least to Blazers fans – fact that Lillard didn't even get a second-place vote, either.
To be fair, Doncic only earned one second-place tally himself. The voters, pretty fairly, believed Jokic, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Paul separated themselves from the MVP pack in 2020-21.
None of that explains Derrick Rose's ninth-place finish in the final voting, accomplished by a lone first-place mark.
Lillard averaged 28.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game in 2020-21 on borderline elite efficiency, dragging Portland to a 117.1 offensive rating, second in basketball behind the Brooklyn Nets.
If not for the buildup of a series of minor injuries that left Lillard a shell of himself for most of April, he would've had a good chance to surpass his previous career-best finish in MVP voting. Lillard was the fourth-place MVP vote-getter in 2018-19.
Maybe next season.