Damian Lillard vs. Jaden McDaniels Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Jaden McDaniels and Damian Lillard, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Damian Lillard played 13 years in the NBA, 8 more than Jaden McDaniels, who played 5. Damian Lillard had the first of his seasons in 2012-13, while Jaden McDaniels had his rookie season in 2020-21. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Damian Lillard	Jaden McDaniels
Season	2012-13	2020-21
Team	Portland Trail Blazers	Minnesota Timberwolves
Honors & Awards	Rookie of the Year	-
	All-Rookie First Team	-
Playoffs	Did Not Play	Did Not Play

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Damian Lillard	82	38.6	19.0	0.5	2.6	3.1	6.5	0.9	0.2	3.0	2.1	6.7	15.7	.429	2.3	6.1	.368	3.3	3.9	.844
difference:	+19	+14.6	+12.2	+0.3	+0.3	+0.6	+5.4	+0.3	+0.8	-2.3	-0.6	+4.1	+9.9	+.018	+1.2	+3.0	+.004	+2.9	+3.2	+.244
Jaden McDaniels	63	24.0	6.8	0.8	2.9	3.7	1.1	0.6	1.0	0.7	2.7	2.6	5.8	.447	1.1	3.1	.364	0.4	0.7	.600
Playoffs Stats
* Neiher Damian Lillard nor Jaden McDaniels played in the postseason in their season 1

Season 2
	Damian Lillard	Jaden McDaniels
Season	2013-14	2021-22
Team	Portland Trail Blazers	Minnesota Timberwolves
Honors & Awards	All-NBA Third Team	-
	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	Trail Blazers Lost West Conf Semis	Timberwolves Lost West Conf 1st Rd

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2nd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Damian Lillard	82	35.8	20.7	0.4	3.1	3.5	5.6	0.8	0.3	2.4	2.4	6.7	15.9	.424	2.7	6.8	.394	4.5	5.2	.871
difference:	+12	+10.0	+11.5	+0.7		+0.7	+4.5	+0.1	+0.5	-1.3	-0.8	+3.1	+8.0	+.036	+1.6	+3.2	+.077	+3.7	+4.2	+.068
Jaden McDaniels	70	25.8	9.2	1.1	3.1	4.2	1.1	0.7	0.8	1.1	3.2	3.6	7.9	.460	1.1	3.6	.317	0.8	1.0	.803
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Damian Lillard	11	42.4	22.9	1.1	4.0	5.1	6.5	1.0	0.1	2.7	2.6	7.5	17.2	.439	2.5	6.4	.386	5.4	6.0	.894
difference:	+5	+20.7	+13.6	+0.3	+2.0	+2.3	+5.8	+0.7	+1.7	-1.7	-0.4	+4.5	+11.5	+.090	+0.8	+3.1	+.114	+3.7	+4.0	+.061
Jaden McDaniels	6	21.7	9.3	0.8	2.0	2.8	0.7	0.3	1.8	1.0	3.0	3.0	5.7	.529	1.7	3.3	.500	1.7	2.0	.833

Season 3
	Damian Lillard	Jaden McDaniels
Season	2014-15	2022-23
Team	Portland Trail Blazers	Minnesota Timberwolves
Honors & Awards	All-Star Game	-
Playoffs	Trail Blazers Lost West Conf 1st Rd	Did Not Play

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3rd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Damian Lillard	82	35.7	21.0	0.6	4.0	4.6	6.2	1.2	0.3	2.7	2.0	7.2	16.6	.434	2.4	7.0	.343	4.2	4.9	.864
difference:	+3	+5.1	+8.9	+0.6	+1.3	+0.7	+4.3	+0.3	+0.7	-1.3	-1.4	+2.5	+7.5	+.083	+1.0	+3.6	+.055	+2.9	+3.1	+.128
Jaden McDaniels	79	30.6	12.1	1.2	2.7	3.9	1.9	0.9	1.0	1.4	3.4	4.7	9.1	.517	1.4	3.4	.398	1.3	1.8	.736
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Damian Lillard	5	40.2	21.6	0.4	3.6	4.0	4.6	0.4	0.6	2.4	3.0	7.8	19.2	.406	1.0	6.2	.161	5.0	6.4	.781
Jaden McDaniels	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Season 4
	Damian Lillard	Jaden McDaniels
Season	2015-16	2023-24
Team	Portland Trail Blazers	Minnesota Timberwolves
Honors & Awards	All-NBA Second Team	-
	-	All-Defensive Second Team
Playoffs	Trail Blazers Lost West Conf Semis	Timberwolves Lost West Conf Finals

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4th Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Damian Lillard	75	35.7	25.1	0.6	3.4	4.0	6.8	0.9	0.4	3.2	2.2	8.2	19.7	.419	3.1	8.1	.375	5.5	6.2	.892
difference:	+3	+6.5	+14.6	+0.2	+1.1	+0.9	+5.4		+0.2	-2.0	-0.8	+3.9	+11.0	+.070	+1.9	+4.6	+.038	+4.7	+5.1	+.170
Jaden McDaniels	72	29.2	10.5	0.8	2.3	3.1	1.4	0.9	0.6	1.2	3.0	4.3	8.7	.489	1.2	3.5	.337	0.8	1.1	.722
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Damian Lillard	11	39.7	26.5	1.1	3.2	4.3	6.3	1.3	0.3	3.0	2.1	8.1	22.0	.368	3.8	9.7	.393	6.5	7.1	.910
difference:	+5	+6.1	+14.3	+0.7	+1.1	+0.5	+5.2	+0.4	+0.8	-1.9	-1.3	+3.6	+13.2	+.146	+2.3	+6.2	+.036	+4.8	+4.9	+.139
Jaden McDaniels	16	33.6	12.2	1.8	2.1	3.8	1.1	0.9	1.1	1.1	3.4	4.5	8.8	.514	1.5	3.5	.429	1.7	2.2	.771

Additional Years
* Damian Lillard played 8 seasons more than Jaden McDaniels in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 6 to 13, from 2018 to 2025—Damian Lillard played in 6 Playoffs and one NBA Cup. In those 8 extra years over Jaden McDaniels, Damian Lillard got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	1 All-NBA First Team 3 All-NBA Second Team 1 All-NBA Third Team 1 Cup All-Tournament Team 7 All-Star Game 1 All-Star Game MVP