We Got Our First Look At The Damian Lillard/Giannis Duo And It's Just As Devastating As People Thought

Adam Pantozzi. Getty Images.

While the Damian Lillard trade drama may have been exhausting to live through, the good news is those days are behind us. Now, we can actually focus on the basketball and on court performance aspect of this trade. A collective turning of the page if you will. Dame is a Buck and will be for the foreseeable future, so we may as well accept it, move on, and get down to the good stuff.

Sunday was our first chance to see Dame with his new team, and while it was definitely weird to see him in an NBA jersey that wasn't Portland for the first time ever, overall it looked like the same old Dame

I don't really put much stock into the 3-10 (2-7) and you shouldn't either. Damian Lillard is good at offense, we know this. What I wanted to see though was how the two of Dame/Giannis would fit together, because the possibilities are endless given their respective skillsets

Here's your first problem as the defense. Take that video above. It's nothing crazy, just a little screen from Jae Crowder on Dame's guy (DLo) which initiates the switch but also allows Dame to flare out to the wing and have a clean look. Now, someone who you probably don't want guarding Damian Lillard now finds himself in space on an island. You'll notice the Bucks have made sure to not have anyone in the strongside corner, and it's up to Dame to decide what he wants to do here. The issue for the defense is there's no bad answer for him. He can put it on the floor and go by you, or he's going hit a dagger three in your eyeball. 

Here's your second problem. The P&R. Another lose/lose situation here for the defense, especially when your defensive big is Christain Wood in drop. Dame is going to eat him alive, as you can see in that clip. Dame comes off the screen, is downhill in an instant, and is way too quick for Wood off the dribble. This is something that's going to make the P&R dynamic between Dame/Giannis so tough. If you drop too far down as Giannis sets the screen, Dame is pulling up from three. If you play too high up, either Giannis is going to roll and dunk on you, or Dame can keep it and attack downhill off the dribble. There's no easy answer as to how to stop it.

Here's the other problem teams are going to face in the P&R with these two on the floor together. This time Giannis rolls, and catches an easy Dame bounce pass in space. This, is a terrifying thing to allow Giannis to see

Remember, normally where Jae Crowder is standing is going to be Khris Middleton (he didn't play in this game). As a defense, you have to collapse here. If you don't, this is an easy dunk for Giannis. That's exactly what the defense does and he has two choices. He can pass to the wing shooter or once he gets the strong side corner defender to help, he can go back there for an easy corner 3PA. 

The shot in this clip misses, but it's a great example of the type of quick decisions this duo is going to put on the defense. With the ability to apply multiple presser points, there's almost nothing you can do other than pray. It's not too different from the Embiid/Harden P&R which is deadly once they are both locked in and actually committed to it. 

You also have to remember this is the worst the Bucks will look. One would assume things should only improve as Dame gets more familiar with his new teammates and this new system, but we also saw the exact reasons why this trade has the potential to be so devastating and all it took was literally two seconds in a fake preseason game. 

We of course need to see how their perimeter defense holds up, how their wing depth plays, and there's the whole new coach thing to integrate as well, not to mention the pressure that comes with being a title contender. The Bucks and this duo need to win big and they need to do it immediately. 

One thing I think we can bank on after tonight though is that this newly formed duo has all the potential in the world to be quite a force to deal with.