We here in Rip City have been aware of Damian Lillard's greatness for some time. And while he's past the point of being "overlooked" or "underrated" -- at least relative to his first few seasons in the NBA -- he probably hasn't received the credit he's deserved nationally over the last few seasons as he's improved from being "All-Star caliber" to "MVP caliber."
There are some legitimate reasons for that -- the Trail Blazers struggling for almost the entirely of the 2019-20 season and the NBA being replete with immensely talented players being the most obvious explanations -- but keeping the Trail Blazers in the upper half of the Western Conference despite CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic sitting out the majority of the season thus far due to injury and his status as the most clutch player in the NBA are reason enough for Lillard to be considered as one of the frontrunners for the Most Valuable Player award a little over midway through the 2020-21 season.