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Best of the Season, Part V: Young Zach Collins gets first career start in Miami

By Matt George Moore

TARRYTOWN, NY - AUGUST 11: Zach Collins #33 of the Portland Trail Blazers poses for a portrait during the 2017 NBA rookie photo shoot on August 11, 2017 at the Madison Square Garden Training Facility in Tarrytown, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
TARRYTOWN, NY - AUGUST 11: Zach Collins #33 of the Portland Trail Blazers poses for a portrait during the 2017 NBA rookie photo shoot on August 11, 2017 at the Madison Square Garden Training Facility in Tarrytown, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Next up in our series examining the Blazers’ best games of the season, we head to Miami for a December match-up with the Heat.

Most retrospectives of this type tend to focus on huge games over primary opponents, last-second buzzer beaters, or games in which one or more players scored a ton of points or dished out a ridiculous number of assists.

As you may have noticed, our “Best of the Season” collection is a little different. Although we’ll certainly be including Blazers games which fall into some of the typical categories listed above, we prefer to shine a light on games that offer glimpses of the future as well as a look back at the recent past.

The Dec. 13, 2017, game against the Miami Heat is a prime example of this.

Why? A few reasons: First, it was a comeback road win that put a stop to a losing streak. And second, Zach Collins got his first career — and only — start of the season.

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Young Zach Collins

Zach Collins is young. So I call him Young Zach Collins. I do this without thinking. I even type it without thinking.

Young Zach Collins.

See? I just did it again.

I do this because Young Zach Collins is young. And because I think it sounds cool.

Young Zach! Whattup, young Zach?!

See what I mean? It’s cool.

Young Zach is cool. And he’s young.

The 7-foot Collins was 19 years old when the season started. He got his first taste of NBA regular season court time in the Blazers’ second game — an October 20, 2017, road win over the Indiana Pacers. He played a little more than seven minutes and missed all four of his shots.

His playing time was sporadic over the first two months of the season. But after getting some mop-up action in a Dec. 5, 2017, blowout loss to the Washington Wizards, Young Zach would play in every Blazers game afterward.

Blazers Need Help

With Jusuf Nurkic (ankle) and Meyers Leonard (illness) out, Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts opted for a starting lineup of Collins, CJ McCollum, Damian Lillard, Al-Farouq Aminu and Evan Turner against the Heat.

The Blazers were scuffling, having lost five games in a row — including four at home — during a brutal stretch that included tilts against the Bucks, Pelicans, Wizards, Rockets and Warriors.

It was during that Warriors loss, though, that Collins started to look like a diamond in the rough. In 25-plus minutes, he scored nine points and snagged seven rebounds. And he added two assists and three steals to his stat line.

As we wrote at the time:

"Zach Collins continues to earn minutes with solid fundamental play. … (He’s) an active rebounder and fearless defender. … Collins led all bench scorers with nine points (a career high)."

Blazers-Heat

Portland was 13-13 when they arrived in Miami. And truth be told, they were playing exactly as their record might indicate: totally average and completely underwhelming.

Young Zach, however, was — and is — neither of those things. And his performance against the Heat (nine points, three rebounds, one block — and just one turnover in about 21 minutes) confirmed what many of us already knew: This rookie could play, and he was ahead of schedule.

The victory in Miami ended Portland’s five-game losing streak and started a three-game winning streak. And even though Young Zach wouldn’t start another game all season, he did begin to establish himself as a reliable bench performer for Stotts.

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The Future

We expect to see a lot more of Collins in the future. Whether or not he works his way into the starting lineup remains to be seen. But if he puts on a little more weight and continues to add effective wrinkles to his offensive game, he’ll likely earn his way into a starting role.

I, for one, envision a day in which Collins has bulked up, improved his defense and three-point shooting, and has added a Kevin McHale-like post-up dimension to his offensive game.

Young Zach is already learning that his height and length make it nearly impossible for defenders to block his shots; if he can add some nifty moves near the basket, he might well be unstoppable.

And then we can look back at that December game in Miami — a night when Collins got his first start — and realize that we were seeing a glimpse of a brighter Blazers future.