As the 2014-15 NBA season opener inches closer, I’ll be breaking down each player on the Trail Blazers expected to contribute to the team’s success. Today, we feature the Iron Man, Wesley Matthews. (Stats provided by NBA.com)
How Did He Do Last Year? Like several other Blazers, Matthews had a career year in a few key categories. Of particular interest is his three-point shooting. He shot the usual near-40% that he had his whole career, but it was how many he took and made that was impressive. He shot 511 threes, up from 425 the year before, and he made 201 of them for a 39.3% mark.
That kind of percentage is considered elite, and maintaining that accuracy while shooting more often is a testament to Matthews’ work ethic, as well as the attention being paid to the Blazers’ tent pole players LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard.
Matthews had career-highs in total points, total rebounds (despite being self-critical of his abilities on the glass during the season), 3PM (three-point field goals made), total minutes, and total assists. He put up 16.4 PPG while guarding the opposing team’s best perimeter player every game. Basically, he had the best possible season a guy like him could have.
What’s His Role For Next Year? Matthews is what basketball folks call a “3-and-D” guy; the reason he’s on an NBA team is his ability to shoot a high percentage behind the three-point arc on offense, while providing elite-level defense on the other end. Ever since Brandon Roy was amnestied, Matthews has been the starting two-guard, and those shoes are impossible for a guy like Matthews to fill in the best of cases, never mind the circumstances which forced Roy to eventually retire.
To his credit, Matthews has never tried to do that. Ever since he went undrafted out of Marquette in 2009, his philosophy has been to keep his nose to the grindstone, do whatever it takes to win, and don’t complain one bit. Those qualities have endeared him to both his teammates and the city of Portland, and his value as a locker-room presence will be amplified with every season he notches under his belt.
What Are His Strengths? In 1987, Matthews’ father, Wes Matthews Sr., played for the Los Angeles Lakers alongside Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and a lanky forward named Michael Cooper. Cooper was one of the original “3-and-D” players: his ability to trail the Showtime fast-break machine Magic ran, find a spot on the floor, and sink a 3 in transition helped the Lakers score heaping piles of points that stood out even in the offensive bonanza that was the 1980s. (That‘s what you got when Magic and Larry Bird, two guys who stank at on-ball defense from 1985 on, were the NBA’s two biggest stars.)
Cooper’s real strength, however, was on defense. NBA defense is not about stopping your man; the great offensive players can’t be stopped completely. NBA defense is about making every single thing the offensive player does on the court more difficult to do. Cooper was so good at this that Bird said he should be in the Hall of Fame. Matthews is so good at this that James Harden, in the Blazers’ playoff series against Houston, shot below 40% from the field before exploding in Game 6. Matthews made an extraordinarily efficient offensive player in Harden extraordinarily inefficient.
On the other side of the ball, Matthews (being the gym rat that he is) found an interesting way to increase his value on offense: he developed a post game.
This is important to point out because in prior years, Wes just stood out at the 3-point line waiting for Roy, Andre Miller, Lillard, or whomever penetrated into the paint to kick the ball back out to him for an open shot. Unfortunately, teams grew wise to Matthews’ sniping from behind the arc, and stashed their weakest perimeter defender on him. Matthews is a below-average ball handler, so as long as said terrible defender didn’t bite on a pump-fake, Matthews couldn’t get a shot off without someone being in his grill.
In 2013-14, however, Matthews punished opponents using this strategy by moving to the right block (opposite Aldridge’s left block happy spot), turning his back to the basket, catching the ball and backing down his man until he got in range for a turnaround jumper, layup, or forced a double-team that starts the defensive breakdowns that good offensive teams like Portland live on. Whenever the likes of Stephen Curry or Tony Parker were switched onto him, Matthews punished them with repeated body blows before unleashing a high-percentage shot, an extremely important skill that helps enable Portland to be so prolific on offense.
When teams with below-average or gawd-awful defenders play the Blazers, if that defender is smaller than Matthews, he can’t hide. Nicolas Batum will just shoot over him; those long arms of his make him look like a 50-foot oak spreading its branches over a 10-foot sapling whenever he shoots over an itty-bitty point guard. Matthews will do what I’ve described above. As for Lillard, he’ll set up a table 25 feet from the basket, stuff a few napkins into his shirt, and proceed to eat bad defenders alive. With his bare hands.
What Does He Need To Improve On? This question is tricky to answer because the consensus among most NBA people is that Matthews has reached his peak. Most NBA teams (the bad ones, anyway) draft for potential instead of fit; Wes went undrafted not because he couldn’t play, but because he wasn’t likely to improve beyond “rotation guy” or “ninth man off the bench.” He has wildly exceeded expectations by molding himself into a top-eight NBA shooting guard through pure will and hard work.
While his basic numbers likely won’t get better than the 16-3-2 (PPG-RPG-APG) Matthews put up last year, he can become a better passer and cutter, increasing his value in the subtle ways that let role players keep their jobs as they age, or if the primary ways they provide value go unexpectedly missing.
I’ll provide a quick example of what I’m talking about: Thabo Sefelosha, another “3-and-D” guy, was let go by the Oklahoma City Thunder after several years of being a starter because his 3-point shooting went in the toilet. He lacks any other offensive skills, so when he was on the floor, the Thunder were basically playing 4-on-5 on offense, which led to them being eliminated by the San Antonio Spurs in the playoffs. Scott Brooks eventually benched Sefolosha, and Oklahoma City decided to get rid of him in favor of Anthony Morrow–the anti-Sefolosha, an excellent 3-point shooter who does nothing else well for an NBA team.
If you’re a player who’s indescribably awful at playing half of the game of basketball, you better be either a Stephen Curry (offensive genius incapable of guarding grannies) or a Tony Allen (defensive genius incapable of putting the ball into a 100-foot wide hoop). There can be absolutely no in-between. That’s why the Thunder got rid of Sefolosha, and that’s why it was (and is) so vital for Matthews to learn other skills. If his shooting falls off like Sefolosha’s did, Wes will still be able to help a team on offense while providing a defensive impact.
Summary I really don’t expect Wesley Matthews to score 16 points a game again. That was a product of the Blazers’ bench being weak, as well as Batum only averaging 10 shots a game. (My thoughts on Batum are known, but I will acknowledge he does need to shoot more.)
What we can expect is the game he’s brought to the table since he came to Portland: great shooting, bulldog defense, physical and mental toughness, leadership, and the never-say-die attitude that enabled him to succeed beyond everyone’s expectations … except his own.
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