Damian Lillard has been through it all in his career. He's been through the ups and the downs and he's stood strong all throughout. Another player that is in the midst of a whirlwind of criticism at this point in his career is none other than Los Angeles Lakers superstar Russell Westbrook. If you were to ask Dame, he has a bit of advice for the former league MVP.

Lillard was a guest on a recent episode of Shanon Sharpe's Club Shay Shay and one of the topics of the conversation centered around the embattled Lakers star. Lillard had some unfiltered advice for Westbrook which could prove to be highly valuable for the struggling former All-Star:

“I mean if I had to tell him anything I would just tell him just face the music with it, you know,” Lillard said. “Like I just said, the criticism, it's going to happen. You're playing in one of the biggest markets, so I would just face it. Whatever questions y'all ask me, whether I think it's a dumb question or something that is self-explanatory or whatever, just face it and deal with it or whatever.”

Westbrook hasn't exactly been receptive to the criticism that has been thrown at him for pretty much the entire year. As a matter of fact, there are times when Russ has been overly defensive — or even aggressive — when responding to questions about his poor performances. Lillard believes that this is not the best approach.

“What he's done is undeniable,” Dam continued. “So like I was just saying, we're going to get criticized regardless. His maybe a little more harsh becasue he's Russell Westbrook, he's playing for the Lakers, he's playing with LeBron. It's going to be more harsh but I would just face it and be like, ‘Look, I'm struggling. I'm still working at it. I'm trying to get through it. It might not be what y'all wanna hear but I'm just trying.'”

Lillard then came to the defense of his peer by explaining why he believes the criticism has been overly extensive. In his mind, Dame believes that Westbrook actually isn't having that bad of a year with the Lakers. It's just that his mistakes continue to get magnified because, well, he's Russell Westbrook. The fact that he's playing for one of the most storied franchises in all of sport, while also being teammates with one of the greatest of all time in LeBron James, doesn't help his case as well.

“Sometimes you struggle but because of the situation you in, the markets you playing in, and the amount of attention you put on everything, it makes everything so much worse,” Lillard said. “If you actually look at his numbers, there's people shooting a worse percentage. His numbers are not bad numbers. It's just the way the game is being played may not be what people want to see or what's expected. Because the ball ain't in his hand all the time. He's not as much in control of the game as people are accustomed to seeing and that's a major adjustment. Nobody's ever been in that position to go from, ‘I've been Russell Westbrook my whole career, and now I'm off the ball way more.'”

Lillard also took a shot at Westbrook's critics by saying that in his belief, things have gotten slanderous. It's alright to criticize a player when he's not at his best — after all, this is their job and they all get paid a lot of money to play basketball. However, Dame clearly feels that right now, a lot of people are hating on Russ just for the sake of hating:

“It's just so much more different situation for him but nobody gotta live that so it's easy to kick somebody when they down and all that, but if I had to tell him something I would just face it and deal with it,” he continued. “I do think it didn't go into the extreme. It's almost as if people just see something that they think everybody's going to agree with it if they just talk s—t about Russell Westbrook. So everybody's just throwing their stuff at him. It's going overboard at this point, in my opinion. It's just crazy to me.”

Finally, Lillard gave Russ his flowers. Dame expressed how much of an impact the Lakers superstar has on the game and how he continues to build on his legacy every single day.

“Russell Westbrook’s career and legacy is undeniable,” Lillard said. “That’s just the bottom line. The player, the career he’s had, what he’s accomplished, the things that he’s done — nobody else has been able to do it. With all these triple-doubles, I don’t care if you stat chasing or whatever people wanna say. If I try to go every game and get a triple-double for a whole season, I can’t do it. And there’s a lot of other people that can’t do it either. That’s hard in itself to actually do it, whether you’re trying to do it or not.”

Sometimes, it's easy to forget all of Russell Westbrook's accomplishments throughout what has been a decorated career. The fact that we're all being reminded about this by a guy like Damian Lillard truly puts things into perspective.