 You know him by one of his many aliases. Damien Thrillard, Will Disney, Dane Time. Damien Lillard has skyrocketed to superstardom, and he's done it through the non-traditional path. Dane was drafted six in 2012 out of Weber State, a university which has made the NCAA tournament just four times since the year 2000. Just two years into his career, everybody knows his name after what he did to the Houston Rockets. Nine-tenths left, a three wins the series. It's Lillard, he got the shot off, fuck! It seems like he's always been fighting uphill, battling multiple all-star snubs. Like I said, I feel like, no, I'm playing an all-star game, and maybe it's about, I need to prove more. I'm not sure, but I'll go out there, that would on a fire before my team. Before finally getting the deserved recognition amongst his peers, there was, of course, the wave heard around the world. Lillard, long run! And his performance in the bubble, which will be talked about forever. All of these memorable moments contribute to the hypothesis that Damien Lillard is one of, if not the most clutch player in the NBA today. That's even before we talk about what he's done, this season. On paper, one might believe there's nothing special going on. The Trail Blazers are in the middle of the Western Conference playoff standings. Big whoop, right? But how soon do these people conveniently forget that C.J. McCollum and Yusuf Nurkic, that team's second and third most important players have been out with injury for more than 50 games combined? In their absence, Lillard has not only ascended to seventh on the all-time 50-point scoring list, he's put up three times the amount of 50-point 10-assist games than the rest of the NBA combined. After that colossal performance in 17-point fourth quarter comeback against the Pelicans on March 17th, Dame led the NBA in clutch point score, clutch points per game, clutch free throw percentage, clutch field goal percentage, clutch threes made, and clutch wins while only playing the 14th most clutch minutes. There's a common theme in those stats that I just rolled off and it's the word clutch. Dame isn't the first clutch player in the league, nor will he be the last. But after that game, the Trail Blazers Twitter account had me thinking, does clutch equal MVP? For further context, let's explore the NBA's most clutch players each season for the last 10 years, prioritized by points per game of those who meet the minimum contest play threshold to qualify. Trey Young, Harden, LeBron, Westbrook, Curry, LeBron, Kairi, CP3, KD, Kobe. By this definition, only Russell Westbrook and Steph Curry have won the award after averaging the most clutch points per game. Dame is at 5.3. He's not only at 5.3, he's the only player on the list who also led the league in clutch field goal percentage amongst qualified competitors. This means he's not Reggie Jacksoning or Monte Ellising, the ball at the rim in mass quantities. He is historically efficient while producing historical volume. Will this result in him winning the NBA's most prestigious regular season award? Probably not, as FanDuel Sportsbook has him 21-1, the seventh favorite even after that Pelicans game to win. And that's because MVP entails more than just being clutch. We get it, it's fine. But whether he's given the trophy or not, Damian Lillard is the league's most valuable player when the game is on the line in the regular season and potentially ever.