Damian Lillard is flying off the ball and under the radar with Blazers

The first returns for NBA All-Star voting were released on Thursday afternoon.For those who have been following the season somewhat closely,there weren't many surprises among the top of the list.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant are the top vote-getters, slatedto be captains for their respective conferences. Stephen Curry andLuka Doncic will likely start in the backcourt for the WesternConference; Kyrie Irving and Donovan Mitchell, Mr. 71 himself, headline theguards in the Eastern Conference.

We have four-men-for-three-spot races in the frontcourt for eachconference. After LeBron in the West, there's Nikola Jokic andAnthony Davis, with Zion Williamson nipping at the heels of Davis.In the East, there's Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid,with Jayson Tatum nipping at the heels of Embiid.

There are some weird ones — like Kevon Looney and Austin Reavesbeing top-10 vote-getters in their position groups over DomantasSabonis and De'Aaron Fox respectively. The lack of love shown forBam Adebayo, Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson is odd, to say theleast.

Quietly trucking along, ranking seventh in guard votes in theWest, is Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.

It's been easy to push Lillard on the back-burner because hehasn't been MVP-good like Doncic (or a healthy Curry) and he hasn'thad the "wow" factor like Ja Morant (third in West guard votes) orShai Gilgeous-Alexander. On top of that, Dame's missed 12 games andthe Blazers are No. 7 in their conference. Those two thingsmightbe related; Portland is 5-7 in the gamesLillard hasn't played.

But I think it's past time to show some appreciation for theseason Lillard is having. Not only has he been really good whenhealthy, there's also been a stark contrast to his usual approachand usage this season.