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The eye test seemed to indicate that Damian Lillard may have lost some of his quickness last season, as evidenced by his 3-point shooting percentage falling to 35.4% and his true shooting percentage dropping to .590. There were several factors that could have contributed to this decline, such as adjusting to playing alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, dealing with various nagging injuries like calf, ankle, groin, and Achilles soreness, as well as experiencing personal challenges like going through a divorce and relocating to a new city.

Just don't tell Lillard, age 34, that his body is starting to let him down. Here's what Lillard said to

Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (behind a paywall).

Hat tip Hoop Rumors

"I'm not a player that's breaking down. I live a clean, good, healthy life, so I can do it. I can do the same (expletive) I did two, three years ago. I can do it right now...

"I think when the trade happened everybody was like, 'Well, Milwaukee's gonna win it,' and I think when it didn't always look the way they wanted it to look or thought it was gonna look, and I wasn't looking how I looked in Portland, it was like, oh, what's going on with Dame? Why is Dame not doing this? But when for a greater part of the season I was still averaging about 26 points. Like, if you really think about that – what standard do y'all hold me to if I'm scoring 26 points and averaging seven assists and I'm not feeling great? I'm going through a lot of stuff. That's just the truth.”

Nobody should question Lillard's conditioning or his care for his body and game.

However, there is a long history of smaller guards falling off at about Lillard's age, so to expect some of that is not crazy. There was an expectation that playing next to Antetokounmpo would open up the court for him. That didn't happen consistently last season, there were multiple reasons for that, and it's something Doc Rivers needs to correct next season.

Going into next season, my preseason rankings have the Bucks fourth in the East and as fringe contenders — if everything goes right they can compete with Boston, Philadelphia and New York at the top of the conference, but Milwaukee has no margin for error. Part of that is health, starting with Antetokounmpo — who missed all of this year's playoffs and played in three games in the 2023 postseason — but also includes Khris Middleton (who has battled injuries as well) and Brook Lopez, who at age 36 can't miss much time or show any drop-off.

An aging Damian Lillard is in that mix, too, the Bucks need him on the court and healthy if they are going to chase another ring.