This upcoming season in the NBA, the Portland Trail Blazers have been making a huge transition after losing four of their five starters, as well as many other unmentionable players that pushed them to their 51-win regular season.
The ESPN Summer Forecast had the new Trail Blazers at a 31-51 record, ending 11th overall in the West. Although the analysts at ESPN have made these very realistic predictions, I believe that there are some highly unforeseen variables playing in the favor of the Trail Blazers.
Take for example one of the largest under-the-radar trades to happen in this offseason, the addition of Mason Plumlee. Plumlee, a two-year NBA and USA Basketball veteran, could be just the jump start that this young team needs.
Even though he was just a second-year player, Mason Plumlee had a very successful 2014-2015 season with the Brooklyn Nets. That being said, his stats in the postseason took a drastic hit when Brook Lopez returned.
If one looks at Mason Plumlee’s season-wide statistics inversely, there are similarities to a Trail Blazer having a breakout year in 2014-2015. Based off both their regular season and postseason averages, I would say that there are exciting things to come from the newly formed duo of Mason Plumlee and Meyers Leonard.
For those who haven’t taken the time to break down the statistics for Mason Plumlee and Meyers Leonard, when both players average 21 minutes a game, there are obvious similarities. For example: FT% has a differential of .005%, from .495 to .500; RPG is a differential of .8, 6.2 for Plumlee and 6.6 for Leonard; and the PPG differential is .9, 8.7 for Plumlee and 7.8 for Leonard.
It seems redundant for the Trail Blazers to have center / power forward hybrids with overlapping stat lines. However, it seems Neil Olshey and office might have caught on to something that the Nets were trying to implement with Plumlee.
When Brook Lopez came back, Brooklyn tried to utilize both Lopez and Plumlee on the floor at the same time. They found that both players tried to play near the basket and it did not work. What the Nets realized is that they needed a big man that could play away from the basket and shoot the ball.
I’m sure this is the exact logic that Neil Olshey and staff utilized in the idea of putting Plumlee and Leonard together. Looking again at their stat lines, one sees a distinct difference in the two – Meyers shoots the three-ball.
When averaging 21 minutes a game, Meyers knocked down 76.9% of his attempted three-point shots. Let that sink in. Damian Lillard has the option to roll off a screen set by either player, has Meyers set on the three-point line and Mason cutting to the basket. The offensive possibilities seem endless.
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