The transition to being the guy with the Portland Trail Blazers to being more of a secondary option for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks hasn’t exactly been the smoothest for Damian Lillard.

His numbers are down across the board, and the offensive upgrade he brought into the team has been more or less a wash with his much of a defensive downgrade he is from Jrue Holiday.

However, as of late, Lillard’s play has perked up; Bucks fans are now seeing the guy who tore up the nets with the Blazers and the guy who had himself one heck of an All-Star weekend in Indianapolis.

On Monday night, with Antetokounmpo out due to injury, Lillard led Milwaukee to a rousing 113-106 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, dropping 41 points.

With new head coach Doc Rivers slowly molding the Bucks in his image, one emphasis from the veteran head coach is to utilize Damian Lillard in a much more familiar manner just so the team can help bring out the best in the superstar floor general.

“So when he [Doc] came in, he was just like, ‘You guys don’t run this? You guys don’t run that? Like, this is stuff we hated to guard against you.’ And he just slowly started to put some of those actions in. You know, I think it’s helped me settle in even more,” Lillard said in his postgame presser, via Gabe Stoltz of SB Nation’s Brew Hoop.

For as much criticism as the hiring of Doc Rivers brought upon the Bucks franchise, these words from Damian Lillard will put those restless fans at ease.

Given his past success, Rivers might not be the ideal coach to lead a club this far into the playoffs, but with the Bucks, he can see that Lillard is essential to raising this team’s potential.

This kind of outburst was long overdue for Lillard; his 41 points versus the Clippers is a major improvement over his combined 33 points on 9-32 shooting over the previous two games. Now that the 33-year-old point guard is beginning to feel more at ease, the league needs to be on the lookout for these Bucks.