Portland Trail Blazers: Al-Farouq Aminu must improve his shooting

Through the Portland Trail Blazers first two games, Al-Farouq Aminu is currently the worst shooter on the team. He must improve his shooting for the Blazers to continue being successful.

We’re two games into the Portland Trail Blazers season which means every Rip City blogger will be writing assessments based on the way-too-small sample size. Mine is that Al-Farouq Aminu is one of the worst shooters in the league and that he must improve his stroke for the Blazers to continue winning.

Okay, that’s an overreaction. Remember: two games in. But, as of now, Aminu holds the worst field goal shooting percentage on the team at 26.7 percent and the second-worst three-point shooting percentage at 22.2 percent (only trailing Nurkic’s 0 percent).

He has gotten decent opportunities, especially from beyond the arc, in these first couple games but has yet to cash in on them consistently.

Of course, the Blazers’ opponents have forced Aminu to work overtime defensively. LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers and LaMarcus Aldridge of the San Antonio Spurs are not easy assignments, and we may have seen Aminu’s offense suffer from all the energy he expended in trying to contain these stars.

However, last season Aminu also struggled from the court. He shot a respectable 36.9 percent from deep, but his overall shooting percentage was only 39.5 percent on 8.4 attempts per game.

He regularly shot above 40 percent from the field before coming to Portland. After his first season as a Blazer, it has dropped below this mark.

His three-point shooting has vastly improved since arriving in Rip City, going from 27 percent to regularly above 35 percent.

His shot chart last year somewhat mirrored a Houston Rockets approach. He shot 139 attempts at the rim, 369 from beyond the arc, and only 126 shots from anywhere else. This is a healthy diet of shots for the type of role player he is.

We will hopefully see Aminu and the Blazers continue limiting his midrange attempts. Around the rim, he was a 61.9 percent shooter. Between three-feet and the three-point line, he was only a 26.2 percent shooter, a number that considerably brought down his overall.

While Aminu makes his money on the defensive end as one of Portland’s best defenders, having him shoot above 40 percent from the field will increase his efficiency as a starter. The Blazers should work to only put Aminu in spots where he is cutting to the rim or popping open for threes.

By continuing to improve his three-point shooting will help take pressure off Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. Although he could be considered a stretch-four offensively, he must become a reliable shooter this season to create any gravity to pull his man out of the paint.

The energy that Aminu brings game in and game out will always be valuable. Now, we just need his shooting to become just as important. While some red flags are flying, let’s also remember that we’re only two games in – he’s got plenty of time to steady the ship.