Portland Trail Blazers: 30 greatest players in franchise history
By Ben Beecken
- Played seven seasons with Trail Blazers (1989-96)
- Averaged 10.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game
Barely cracking our top-10 is Buck Williams, who played seven ultra-consistent seasons for the Trail Blazers in the early to mid-90s.
Williams played the first nine years of his NBA career with the then New Jersey Nets and was named to three All-Star teams. He averaged 16.4 points and 11.9 rebounds per game before being traded to Portland in the Sam Bowie deal in the summer of 1989.
Williams was a starter for his first six years in Portland, but simply wasn’t relied on to score as he had been with the Nets. With the likes of Clyde Drexler (still to come on this list), Terry Porter (also still to come), Kevin Duckworth and Clifford Robinson (No. 13 on this list), Williams could settle into a role as a solid defender and a great last-ditch option on offense.
After all, if you have someone who had multiple 18-plus points-per-game scoring seasons as your fourth or fifth option on offense, then you probably have a pretty good offense.
Williams never averaged more than 13.6 points per game with the Trail Blazers, and he did that in his first year in Portland. He was already 29 years old, and the decline started quickly.
But even still, Williams was always a good defender and started nearly every single game. In fact, from 1989 through 1995, Williams only missed five games and started 405 out of 410 possible regular season games.
Williams was the model of consistency for some outstanding Trail Blazers teams before continuing to be his consistent self for some mediocre squads. All of that adds up to get him into the top-10 on our list.