Noah Vonleh V Draymond
Noah Vonleh has seemed to carve out a role in Portland after sporadic playing time in Charlotte.
He is averaging a career high in minutes per game (16.8) this season. With added minutes, comes added stats: his 4.3 PPG and 5 RPG are career highs as well.
The former Indiana big man has started 40 games for the Blazers, including the entirety of March and April that helped Portland make the playoffs. In that time, Vonleh has registered rebound totals of: 14, 13, 12 and 11 (x2).
Bounce is a dear friend to Vonleh, who can sky over defenders for rebounds, or to dunk all over them:
Noah had the dunk of the year, we took the season series from Denver, Nurk dropped a career high and CJ hit for 39 » https://t.co/15g65ZSE6Z pic.twitter.com/hvB1ogL2iP
— Portland Trail Blazers (@trailblazers) March 29, 2017
The six-foot-ten-inch forward holds a three-inch height advantage over Green. Vonleh will need every bit of the advantage to get going against the tenacious defender.
Given Green’s tendency to get a high amount of steals, he’ll look to poke the ball away from Vonleh as he tries to establish his back to the basket game.
Green can also disrupt Vonleh by pulling the chair on him as he makes his power moves. It would be no surprise to see Green not get the call, complain to the ref, then get the call on a similar situation the next time it happens.
Vonleh can, however, use his ability to run explosive pick and rolls to his advantage. Vonleh’s cutting is one of his best attributes, and allows for monster finishes over defenders.
If he can get Green to sag off to chase Damian Lillard or C.J. McCollum, look for a hard dive to the basket by Vonleh.