Portland Trail Blazers: 30 greatest players in franchise history
By Ben Beecken
- Played six seasons with Trail Blazers (2001-07)
- Averaged 16 points and 7.7 rebounds per game
Zach Randolph was the No. 19 pick of the 2001 NBA Draft out of Michigan State. He joined a playoff team that had been to the Western Conference Finals only two years prior. That meant that he played extremely limited minutes over 48 games as a rookie.
In his second year, he only played 16.9 minutes over 77 games, starting 11 games and averaging 8.4 points and 4.5 rebounds per game overall on the season. But a breakout year was just around the corner.
In 2003-04, just his third year in the league, the 22-year-old “Z-Bo” put up 20.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per contest. However, the Trail Blazers finished with a 41-41 record and missed the playoffs.
It was the beginning of a four-year stretch for Randolph where he averaged 20.2 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, while shooting 46.1 percent from the floor. The Trail Blazers as a whole had their worst stretch of losing seasons since the first few years of the franchise’s existence. They only won 41, 27, 21, and 32 games respectively before improving in 2007-08 — their first year without Randolph.
While Randolph was still in a less efficient part of his career and wasn’t surrounded with much talent, he improved his game after being traded to the New York Knicks and bouncing to the Los Angeles Clippers for half of a season. He spent eight years with the Memphis Grizzlies before playing the 2017-18 campaign with the Sacramento Kings as a 36-year-old.
If only the Trail Blazers had played better all-around basketball with Randolph on the roster. As it stands, the sheer numbers that Randolph put up over six seasons is enough to get him to No. 22 on our list.